Junior doctors at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) have issued a final ultimatum to the Sindh government: pay their outstanding stipends within 48 hours or face a total strike that will cripple the hospital’s outpatient and emergency services.
The standoff centers on months of unpaid stipends for house officers and postgraduate trainees. For many, the delay has stretched into the fourth month, leaving young doctors struggling to cover basic living costs and commuting expenses just to reach the facility.
“We’ve been working 36-hour shifts on empty pockets,” said one trainee, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The administration keeps promising the funds are in the pipeline, but the pipeline has been dry since last year.” The Young Doctors Association (YDA) is spearheading the protest.
They’ve already pulled staff from non-essential departments, but the threatened “complete shutdown” would escalate the situation significantly. If the strike proceeds, elective surgeries will be canceled, and even emergency wards already under immense pressure will see skeleton staffing levels. Hospital management remains in a tight spot.
Sources within the JPMC administration claim the delay stems from bureaucratic hurdles in the provincial finance department rather than a lack of intent.
Yet, for the doctors on the ground, the internal administrative friction is irrelevant. “I have a family to support and rent to pay,” another doctor said. “I can’t pay my landlord with administrative assurances.
” The Sindh Health Department has yet to issue a formal response or a concrete payment schedule. As the clock ticks toward the 48-hour deadline, the city’s largest public hospital faces a potential collapse in service that would leave thousands of patients without access to care.
If the government fails to release the funds by Thursday, the doors to routine clinical operations will shut indefinitely.
