KMC-run hospitals’ doctors block MA Jinnah Road for payment of salaries

A large number of doctors from various hospitals of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Tuesday blocked one of the city’s busiest roads in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for the last nine months and vowed to adopt all means to get their remuneration paid to them at the earliest.

A massive vehicular traffic jam was witnessed when a large number of doctors, mostly lady doctors, from the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, the Sobhraj Maternity Home, and dentists from different hospitals, blocked MA Jinnah Road in front of the KMC building.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with demands of payments of their salaries, doctors and surgeons working at the KMC-run hospitals said authorities were compelling them to work day and night without salaries for the last nine months.

Protesting doctors chanted slogans against the KMC administration and vowed to continue holding demonstrations if they were not paid their salaries immediately. KMC Municipal Commissioner Ammar Zaidi spoke to the protesting doctors and assured them that their salaries would be paid within a week. Later, they called off their protest but warned that if the KMC officials did not keep their promises, they would hold a protest sit-in on MA Jinnah Road.