Young doctors assured of PTI’s support

Imran Khan tells doctors they were right to protest for their rights.

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Saturday assured the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab of his support in their campaign for a new service structure.

This was stated by YDA Jinnah Hospital President Dr Javaid Aheer who was part of the delegation that called upon the PTI chairman at the party’s Central Media Office at Cavalry Ground. The delegation was led by its President Dr Hamid Butt. Butt briefed Khan on the association’s demand. “Imran Khan supported our stand. He told us he was astonished why the Punjab government wasn’t accepting our rightful demands,” Aheer told The Express Tribune. Khan told the delegation the doctors had a right to protest for their rights. “He told us that if the Punjab government arrested any doctor, the PTI would react strongly,” Aheer said. Dr Mudassir Razzaq Khan, the YDA media secretary, said the meeting with Imran Khan was held in a cordial atmosphere. “He assured us of his full support and cooperation,” he maintained.

Dr Aheer said the YDA hadn’t asked the PTI to lend them any support in their planned sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on November 7. “The sit-in and long march are doctors’ affairs. We don’t want activists of any political party to join us,” he said.

There hasn’t been any contact between the Punjab government and the YDA since Eid. The YDA is scheduled to hold another protest on November 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2012.