Islamabad The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) employees’ protest against the upgradation of their hospital to a medical university entered fourth day on Thursday.
Shouting slogans and holding placards, scores of employees led by Sharif Khattak of PIMS Employees United Action Committee said they won’t compromise their principled stand and continue fighting for the detachment of their hospital from the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University to ensure that they continue to be part of the federal government.
In March last year, then President Asif Zardari signed into law an Act of Parliament that granted a degree awarding status to PIMS by turning it into the medical university.
By and large, the organisation’s changeover didn’t sit well with the hospital employees, totalling around 3,000, who felt insecure about their jobs.
They insisted they would like to remain the employees of the federal government instead of being part of the university as the varsity would have to generate money for own expenses in the next fiscal besides looking towards the cash-starved Higher Education Commission for funds and therefore, their future seemed bleak.
Sharif Khattak said the PIMS employees were not opposed to the establishment of the medical university in the capital city and instead, they wanted that educational institutions to be established at places other than their hospital.
He praised PML-N MNA for floating a bill to amend the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (SZAB) Medical University Act to separate PIMS from the university and urged parliamentarians to approve it for enactment.
According to the bill, the PIMS and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University will be two separate entities having no concern with regard to the use of their infrastructure and financial resources.
On Wednesday, the House had refereed the bill to the relevant standing committee for examination and recommendations. It will later be sent back to the National Assembly for voting.
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