Sanaullah says strike called off, YDA denies

Rana Sanaullah says all arrested doctors will be released, YDA says will continue strike till demands are met.


Ali Usman July 04, 2012

LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed on Wednesday that the Young Doctors Association (YDA), Punjab has called off its strike. However, YDA officials contradicted the statement.

The provincial law minister, after having a meeting with senior doctors for two hours, said that cases against doctors will be withdrawn and all those arrested will be freed.

On the other hand, YDA Punjab office bearers said that they have not called off the strike.

“When our fellow doctors return to homes from jails, and cases against them are withdrawn, we will resume our services at Emergency Wards in hospitals. The strike at OPDs and Indoor Departments will continue till the implementation of the service structure,” Dr Aftab, an office bearer of YDA and its Lahore spokesperson, told The Express Tribune.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had called a meeting of principals of medical colleges and senior doctors at the CM Secretariat to discuss the situation caused by the YDA strike.

Senior officials will also attend the meeting while Medical Teachers Association (MTA) office bearers were also invited to attend the meeting. The meeting reviewed the healthcare situation across the province.

Although the Outpatient Departments (OPDs) and emergency wards were operating in the province, there has still been a deficiency of doctors.

As per the official figures, in Lahore there are 7,000 young doctors out of which just 370 were performing duties. Others were either not coming to work or had gone underground. Some 125 new doctors had taken charges of their duties while 90 doctors from the Army Medical Corps were performing duties.

Routine operations in teaching hospitals had also been cancelled and patients were being put on the waiting list.

“The makeshift arrangements are somehow running the system but this cannot last for long. The working doctors are overloaded and would exhaust if they have to work like this for several days. The government has an understanding of this situation and that’s why a meeting has been called by the chief minister to deal with this situation,” said a senior professor at a teaching hospital in Lahore.

COMMENTS (30)

Khaleel Ahmad | 11 years ago | Reply

Shahbaz Sharif is well known dictator in civil clothes.They is real robbers and vagabonds. Actually Doctors work hard but due to no infrastructure many of them leave country. It is farcical. if you give them what they deserve ,strike never occur. I appreciate they should not do strike but no one listen. I myself worked in 2000 free of cost for many months & then left the country because helping humanity for nothing doesn’t fill your pocket or stomach. The way Shahbaz Sharif is behaving now is their actual picture. I hope & pray Allah help us get rid of these bad leaders. it can only happen if people become determined that they want to get rid of these people. Doctors are the highly educated peoples of Pakistan, they are the cream of nation, but the attitude shown by Punjab Govt towards doctor’s community is brutal and barbaric, we all condemn it. We must respect our educated people or otherwise in next few years we will not find any educated person in Pakistan especially doctors. Doctor’s demands are just right; Punjab Govt can fulfill it but cm just for his ego playing with people of Punjab shame on Govt for this act, another black day in Pakistan history shame cm khadim-e-ala, and wake up until its too late.

Naveen Shah | 11 years ago | Reply

The Chief Minister Punjab needs to understand that not every issue can be dealt with in his usual aggressive, authoritarian manner. The doctors are people protesting because they have grievances, because they were promised proper treatment and have been let down. They are professionals who should be respected, not treated as though they were criminals who must be crushed. The chief minister would do well to remember that the democracy he so loudly champions allows for protest and public dissent. To crack down so aggressively on one of the respected services of the state is going to do no one any good, least of all the Punjab government itself.

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