Doctors? protest hampers traffic flow on Karachi's MA Jinnah Road

KARACHI: Doctors associated with Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) staged a protest in front of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) head office on Monday, affecting the traffic flow on MA Jinnah Road in Karachi.Protesters, including regular employees of ASH as well as trainee doctors had been demanding immediate release of their salaries and stipends, pending for the last four and 10 months respectively.Later on following a meeting between Karachi mayor Syed Wasim Akhter and the representatives of protesters, it was agreed that salaries and stipends would be released from the current month of April.The mayor expressing his deep regret for the chaos and problems faced by the ASH doctors and post-graduate trainees said certain matters were beyond his control.He also announced that from the current month the pending dues would be cleared on a monthly basis as it would be difficult to make the payment in one-go.Akhter further promised that a contingency plan would be developed to avert circumstances causing hindrance in the timely release of salaries.He also urged the doctors to always keep into consideration the plight of patients.