QUETTA: Nurses of all government hospitals in the provincial capital, including Civil Hospital and Bolan Medical College hospital, went on strike on Monday.

The nursing staff refused to perform their duties till their demands were met and gathered at a place in the civil hospital and held a protest demonstration.

The strike was called by the Nurses Action Committee (NAC) and Balochistan Nurses Association (BNA).

The president ofthe nurses association, Gulfam Kakar, and chairman of the NAC Emilia William claimed that the health department had forced nurses to go onstrike in Ramazan and had not honoured any of their promises with regards to their demands.

`For a very long time nurses have been deprived of their due rights,` they said, adding that if their demands were not accepted and official notifications were not issued within two days, the nurses would boycott the accident and emergency ward.

Discussing their demands, the nurses said that the government had set up a committee to resolve the issue of the professional health allowance but no decision had been taken so far.

They added that they had demanded the government sign a summary regarding the allowance as well as increase the amount to Rs20,000 for student nurses.

Ms Kakar and Ms William announced that the nurses would protest outside the provincial assembly on the eve of the budget session and take out rallies in Quetta if their problems were not solved soon.