HRCP flays manhandling of lady health workers

KARACHI: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious concern over brutal police action against lady health workers in Sindh and held the Sindh government and provincial authorities responsible for it.

According to reports, batons and tear-gas were indiscriminately used against the protesters, who were holding a peaceful demonstration, demanding regularisation of their services.

The police charged the lady health workers with batons who tried to stage a demonstration outside the Chief Minister’s House for release of their colleagues arrested in Ghotki, Sukkur and Obaro. The police, while thrashing the protesting men and women alike, also rounded up six lady health workers and lodged a case against them.

According to an e-mail received by the HRCP from the Lady Health Workers’ Association chief, Bushra Arain, some 36 women workers were arrested in Qamu Shareef sit-in by the police. They are now detained in Sukkur Jail. The HRCP has strongly condemned the manhandling of lady health workers by the police. The commission has called upon the Sindh government to release all the detained workers and other staff members and ensure that cases registered against them are withdrawn.

In recognition of the crucial nature of their work, the government should regularise their service and provide medical aid and treatment to those demonstrators who were injured at the hands of the police and local administration. pr

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