Doctors agree to call off street protest

YDA agrees to call off street protest after a meeting with a committee constituted by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

LAHORE:

The Young Doctor’s Association (YDA) Punjab has agreed to call off the street protest scheduled for Tuesday after a meeting with a committee constituted by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to discuss their demands.

The committee headed by Allama Iqbal Medical College principal, Prof Javed Akram held their first meeting with YDA representatives on Sunday. The meeting decided that the doctors would call off the street protests on Tuesday. Prof Akram said that the YDA Punjab was willing to negotiate. He hoped that their strike would end this week. He said that the doctors had initially wanted to set up camps on hospital premises to treat outpatients and to continue their street protest. “After our meeting they relented. The government is determined to address their genuine grievances,” he said. “Doctors can better resolve their issues without involving the bureaucracy,” he said.

YDA Punjab press secretary Dr Aftab Ashraf confirmed that they had called off the street protest. “We plan to set up camps at hospitals to treat outdoor patients until our demands are met,” he said.

YDA Punjab started the protests on March 1 after negotiations with the Punjab government failed. YDA is demanding that salaries of medical officers be raised from Rs22,000 to Rs 70,000 per month. “Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif promised in 2008 to raise the salaries but he has broken that promise,” Ashraf said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.