Defiant doctors escalate protest, sit-in at PA

Doctors from six public hospitals gather outside Punjab Assembly to protest government’s refusal to raise wages.

LAHORE:

Doctors from the city’s six public teaching hospitals gathered, on Thursday, outside the Punjab Assembly to protest the government’s refusal to raise their wages. The Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) said that the government had till March 21 to meet their demands, failing which the doctors would go on indefinite strike.

Yesterday was the first day of an indoor wards strike. The YDA has previously stopped work at out-patient departments.

Doctors from each school blocked one of the major roads before marching to the Assembly chambers. Doctors from Lahore General Hospital and Children’s Hospital blocked Ferozepur Road. Services Hospital and Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC) doctors gathered on Jail Road and the Canal Road was overtaken by doctors from Jinnah Hospital.

The Mall was blocked by doctors from Ganga Ram Hospital and Mayo Hospital. The protesting doctors then marched to the Punjab Assembly for a sit-in that lasted till evening.

“The government can do what it wants, we will fight till our demands are met,” YDA Punjab president Dr Hamid Butt said. “We are ready to be arrested and fired.” Butt said the government had issued warning letters to 200 doctors, including himself and members of the YDA executive council.

\ The doctors had come out to protest despite the notices, he said, adding that the notices had actually galvanised them into action. He said that indoor and outdoor wards throughout Punjab had been shut down but duty doctors continued to serve.

Butt said if the government did not agree to their demands by March 21, the doctors would go on strike for an indefinite period till their demands were met.

YDA Punjab press secretary Dr Aftab Ashraf said that Wednesday night’s dialogue with Advisor to the Chief Minister Zulfiqar Khosa had fallen through and the doctors would now use street agitation as a way of making the government meet its demands. “If the government tries to suppress us, then our strike and protest will just escalate.”

Dr Aftab Hussain, a doctor from PIC, said the strike was a push for the doctors’ rights. “We have the lowest salaries of any professional,” he said.

Ganga Ram Hospital’s Dr Samra Majeed said the doctors’ situation was dire. She said the protests and strikes stem from anger and frustration at being neglected.

“Civil servants and political leaders use the very same doctors’ services  privately,” the doctor said.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP’s) Raja Riaz arrived to show his support. He said it was unlikely that the government would make any move to improve things for the doctors. “How can you expect them to care for our doctors when Nawaz Sharif himself has gone abroad for treatment?” said the opposition leader.

Former Punjab PPP president Ghulam Abbas told The Express Tribune that poor salaries had led to the exodus thousands of doctors.

“It is embarrassing that notices were issued to doctors who represent the good in the society at a time when fundamentalism and extremism are on the rise.”

Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam’s Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan said the Punjab government had wasted public money on useless projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.