SUKKUR, March 23: More than 2,500 lady health workers (LHW) from different parts of Sindh, Punjab and Azad Kashmir staged a sit-in on the National Highway in Kamoon Shaheed, an area on the Sindh-Punjab border, on Wednesday in protest against the delay by the government in issuing a notification regularising their services.The protesters, led by MNA Marvi Memon of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, blocked the National Highway and a large number of vehicles were stranded on three sides of the highway from Rahimyar Khan (Punjab) to Ghotki (Sindh) and from Kashmore to Ubauro.

Thousands of passengers, including women and children, coming from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi suffered immensely because of lack of water, food and other facilities on the highway.

All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Employees Association president Bushra Arain and general secretary Noor Bano Mallah told journalists that the lady workers were staging the sit-in along with their children, but no official of the health department or the district administration had visited the camp to negotiate with the protesters. Instead, they said, the Ghotki DPO was threatening that he would lodge an FIR against the protesters for the death of two patients caused by the blockade of the highway.

“We have received a message from the DPO that if the protesters do not disperse and end the blockade by 9pm, police will resort to baton-charge, teargas shelling and even aerial firing to maintain law and order,” the association’s leaders said.