LAHORE: Young doctors and paramedics Monday held rallies on various roads of the city against the Medical Teaching Institutions (Reforms) Ordinance 2019, causing traffic congestion and creating problems for motorists.

The protesters blocked some sections of the Ferozepur Road, The Mall and the Jail Road for traffic and demanded the Punjab government to withdraw the ordinance forthwith.

The doctors, nurses and paramedics from the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore General Hospital, Services and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital staged protest rallies separately under the banner of the Grand Health Alliance.

The simultaneous blockage of these major arteries by the striking employees seriously affected traffic flow on other roads of the city as well.

The situation remained particularly disturbing for motorists on The Mall, Jail Road and the Lahore Canal where they remained stuck for hours.

The traffic wardens kept diverting the traffic to narrow streets in residential colonies to ease the main arteries of the city, but with little relief.

Bumper-to-bumper traf fic was witnessed in various localities, including the Shadman Colony, which was already packed with vehicles because of schools and education institutions situated there.

Addressing the protest rallies, the representatives of the protesters said the government was going to privatise the state-run hospitals in the province which would not be acceptable for them.

They said the government was trying to enforce a law in Punjab which had already been unanimously rejected by all professional medical bodies.

They announced the agitation would be intensified in the coming days by taking out rallies with more strength to press the Punjab government for withdrawing the ordinance.