YDA vs MS: Seven doctors granted bail, MS reproached for ‘concealing facts’

‘None of the doctors had any weapons in the footage produced before the court’.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Thursday granted bail to seven members of the Gujranwala Young Doctors Association (YDA) in an assualt case registered against them by the Civil Hospital medical superintendent (MS).

The doctors were ordered to furnish bail bonds worth Rs100,000 each.

Justice Sheikh Najamul Hassan also admonished Anwar Amanullah, the MS, during the hearing, remarking that he had concealed facts from the court.

The judge was hearing a bail application – filed by Dr Kashif Bilal, Dr Ihtesham, Dr Tahir Malhi, Dr Waqas Idrees, Dr Kashif Bashir, Dr Abdullah Zia and Dr Farasat – in a case registered by Gujranwala police under Sections 324 (attempted murder),506 (criminal intimidation) and 452 (trespass) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

On Thursday, the doctors’ counsel told the court that the doctors were being ‘targeted’. He said the FIR registered against the doctors was fabricated. There was no evidence or witnesses to support the charges, he said. He requested the court to grant his clients bail.

Amanullah told the judge that the doctors had “brutally tortured” him and threatened him. The doctors had also vandalised his office, he said.

The judge observed that none of the doctors had any weapons in the TV footage produced before the court. Justice Hassan then told the MS that he had ‘concealed facts’ from the court. The judge said the issue had become complicated because of the MS’s “negligence”, who failed to resolve the matter through dialogue.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2013.