Management at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) decided to take strict action in August 2015 against the 18 employees who had been leading protests against a decision to change the status of the Institute. A bill passed in 2013 had given the institute university status and had changed the status of the employees from civil servants to private sector workers.
The Chairman of the Pims United Action Committee, Mohammad Riaz Gujar, said they were protesting on behalf of both workers and patients. Pims had been a welfare hospital but had become an autonomous body, and was steadily increasing its fees. The hospital authorities were threatening dismissal.
