The strike was called by the Young Doctors Association to demand a pay raise.
Outdoor wards at Ganga Ram, Services and Children hospitals, as well as other major civil hospitals, are closed.
Similar protests are being held in various other cities including Multan, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Khanewal, Faisalabad, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Updated from print edition (below)
‘Raise doctors’ salaries to stop brain drain’
The government should announce a special salary package for doctors to stop the brain drain in the country, said Pakistan Medical Association members at a press conference on Monday.
The PMA announced it was launching a protest drive in support of the demand for the special salary package. The PMA would hold a provincial convention on March 28, following which it would go on strike.
The press conference was attended by Dr Ashraf Nizami, Dr Tanveer Anwar, Dr Izhar Chaudhry, Dr Akhtar Rashid Malik, Dr Ehsanur Rehman, Dr Kamran Saeed, Dr Salman Kazmi and Dr Khalid Chaudhry.
They said the salary package should be announced for all categories including house officers, post graduates, medical officers, senior registrars, specialists and teaching, administrative and general cadres. They said a raise for only one or a few categories would not be acceptable. They said pamphlets and posters had already been distributed across the country in the first phase of the protest drive.
They said they were taking other doctor organisations such as the Young Doctors Association, Pakistan Dental Association (PDA), and Medical Teachers Association (MTA) into confidence with regards to the protest movement. They said a group of doctors was planning to go on strike in support of the salary package for only one category of doctors. The group, they said, had not consulted the PMA or any other association on the matter. The PMA demanded that all vacant seats between grade 17 and grade 20, especially those of 4,000 medical officers, be filled as a priority.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2011.
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