KARACHl: At least four of the protesting lady health workers on Tuesday fainted while demanding payment of salaries to the LHWs during a demonstration near Arts Council on a road leading to the Sindh Assembly building, officials and witnesses said.

The protesters staged a sit-in for hours to press for their demands, including the payment of salaries and job security, and dispersed only after they were assured by the provincial ministers that their salaries would be paid soon despite the fact that the delay in disbursement of salaries was not on the Sindh government part, as the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care was a federal subject. The protest was organised by the Sindh chapter of All-Pakistan Lady Health Workers Employees Association (APLHWEA). The protesters had gathered on a second consecutive day outside the Karachi Press Club from where they marched towards the Sindh Assembly building, which was in session.

As they arrived outside the gates on the road leading to the assembly building, they were stopped by the police equipped with riot gears, a water cannon and an armoured personnel carrier. Subsequently, the protesters stopped near the Arts Council, where they staged a sit-in, which caused a gridlock on all the link roads.

Witnesses said some four protesters fainted during the protest. The women were shifted to a hospital, they added.

Later, provincial information minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar visited the protesters and assured them that their salaries would soon be paid. They said that the Sindh government had sanctioned a special grant to pay salaries to them every month. The grant would be adjusted when the federal government would release the fund for the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care, which was a federal subject, they said.

After assurance from the provincial ministers, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Sindh chapter general secretary of the association Shahnaz Ranjhani said they would meet the provincial authorities on Wednesday (today) to sort out the issues after which they would chalk out their further course of action.