Two doctors booked for attacking patient, police

The patient was allegedly held forcefully at gunpoint by the doctors.

ISLAMABAD: Skin specialist and TV personality Dr Fazeela Abbassi and four others late on Tuesday were booked for attacking and illegally detaining police officials and a female patient in their clinic.

Dr Fazeela Abbasi is a well-known skin specialist and daughter of chairperson of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice MNA Justice (R) Begum Naseem Chaudhary from Multan.

According to police, a US-returned woman Rizwana Rasheed called Rescue 15 police and complained that she had been detained by Dr Abbasi and Dr Ikram Sheokh’s security guards at their clinic in sector F-10/2. When the nearest police patrol reached House 518, the police party found the girl held inside a room on gunpoint.

On seeing the police, Rasheed told them that she was being forcefully held at the clinic.

“When we asked her to come out of the clinic, Dr Abbasi ordered her security guards to lock the room from outside and not let the police take Rasheed away,” said a police official.

Meanwhile, the police official said that a security guard present inside the room hit him with a chair. Later, on the call of the detained police officials, police reinforcements along with the additional deputy commissioner (general) arrived at the scene and freed the woman and the police officials.

The two security guards were arrested and a case was registered against five people including Dr Fazeela Abbasi and Dr Ikram Sheikh.

Police said they faced pressure from certain political circles for not naming Dr Abbasi in the FIR since her mother, an MNA from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party Begum Naseem Chaudhry, also arrived at the scene and threatened police of “grave consequences.”

Rizwana Rasheed, the complainant, maintained that she had gone to Dr Abbasi for treatment of a skin disease after watching her on a private television channel. “I asked them about the treatment fee on phone and was told it was Rs8, 000, but when I arrived at the clinic, they said it was Rs25,000.”

However, on Tuesday she went to the clinic to change the medicine prescribed to her as it had had an adverse reaction on her skin. However, Dr Abbasi allegedly asked her guards to not let her out of the clinic until she paid the clinic Rs25,000 for a treatment she underwent during her last visit.

“I was not informed of this amount earlier. But when I asked them to let me go and allow me to bring the money, they refused. Then I called my home and asked them to send someone with the money,” she said.

The woman also accused a security guard of thrashing and harassing her before police arrived on her call.

Dr Fazeela Abbasi did not answer telephone calls despite many attempts. However, sources close to her claimed that police overstepped its rights and entered a ladies’ clinic without a search warrant.

Police said they had raided Dr Fazeela Abbasi’s house for her arrest but she was not at home.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2010.