Doctors at the government-run Abbassi Shaheed Hospital in Karachi stopped work at the outpatient department and demonstrated outside the medical superintendent’s office on 21 June 2019 to demand the payment of up to ten months’ wages and benefits. Payments were owed to over 300 doctors, post-graduate trainees and house officers.
The hospital administration responded by firing ten of the protesters. The doctors responded by resigning en masse. The protest was called off by the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) after the administration promised to solve the issue by 12 August.
The Karachi mayor and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which is responsible for the hospital, had previously agreed to pay the arrears by 1 April following similar protests in March but reneged on their promise.
