More than a year has passed and the doctors, it seems, are fed up with being given false promises.
RAWALPINDI: This is with reference to Ali Usman’s article of July 5 “Doctors’ strike: other side of the picture”. The Young Doctors Association and the Punjab government were in the very same place last year when the doctors made these same demands. After much commotion, the Punjab government agreed to meet the demands of the doctors, promising to raise their salaries and negotiate the flawed service structure. More than a year has passed and the doctors, it seems, are fed up with being given false promises — their salaries remain meagre and their service structure is such that they may as well be taken for granted.
This has led to so much mistrust in the government of Shahbaz Sharif that the YDA is not interested in hearing what fresh promises the government throws its way. One does not understand why the government made lofty promises to these aggrieved doctors in the first place if it had no intention of honouring them. Now that the doctors are asking for accountability for these promises, they are being bullied into calling off the strike by force.
Danyal Akmal
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2012.
