Expressing reservations: Doctors protest proposed health sector legislation

Demonstrators threaten to hold sit-in outside K-P Assembly if demands not met.

PESHAWAR: Members of the Joint Doctors Forum (JDF) protested on Wednesday against proposed legislation in the health sector, threatening to hold a sit-in outside the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly if their demands are not met within two days.

The JDF is a joint venture of the Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Young Doctors Association, Insaf Doctors Association, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Islamic Doctors Forum K-P, Peoples Doctors Forum and Malgari Doctoran formed to protect their interests.

The protesting medical practitioners, led by the association’s office bearers, took out a rally from Lady Reading Hospital to the provincial assembly building, causing a traffic jam on Khyber Road.

The demonstrators chanted slogans against the government and Health Commission Care Bill 2015 which was tabled in the assembly on Tuesday. Under the legislation, the Health Regulation Authority will be replaced by the Health Care Commission and a ban will be imposed on government doctors’ practice in their private clinics.



The protesting doctors warned of agitation if the act is passed by the house.

JDF member Dr Musa Kaleem told reporters that the government should immediately accept changes proposed by doctors in November 2014 in the bill. He added the draft prepared by the government would benefit only a few people and not the general public.

According to Kaleem, if the bill is enacted, junior doctors will become eligible to be posted as head of the departments. He added doctors are sent to Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) for training on merit, but when PGMI loses its autonomous status “only blue-eyed boys will be sent for training”.

Another JDF member, Dr Ashraf Khan said doctors have been struggling for their service structure for many years but still remained deprived.

The forum’s members said they have held meetings with the opposition leader of the provincial assembly and other parliamentarians from the opposition benches and warned of extending the protest to other parts of K-P if their concerns were not addressed. They also warned of a sit-in outside the assembly building if the government does not consider their proposals in the bill.

Earlier, the PDA had set January 1 as the deadline for protests across the province, however, in the aftermath of the December 16 Army Public School massacre, the association postponed the strike call.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2015.