Strike continues: Quetta doctors unfazed by CM’s ultimatum
OPDs remained closed and scheduled operations cancelled.
QUETTA:
Scheduled operations were cancelled and out-patient departments (OPDs) were closed in all major state-run hospitals of Quetta as doctors continued their strike for the third consecutive day on Thursday.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani took notice of the strike and has issued instructions that those doctors who do not resume their duties with 24 hours be sacked.
But most doctors remained unfazed by the chief minister’s ultimatum and only attended to emergency cases.
“It is the last day of mourning and doctors have already decided to re-open OPDs and operation theatres. Thus, the CM’s threat is totally irrelevant and completely uncalled for,” a Quetta-based doctor said, requesting anonymity.
Members of the Pakistan Medical Association’s (PMA) Balochistan Chapter seemed to have no knowledge of the ultimatum. “We are not observing a complete strike and I have no information about the chief minister’s statement,” PMA Balochistan president Dr Mazaar Baloch said. “The PMA will meet on Friday to decide its future course of action.”
Balochistan’s doctors went on strike to condemn the murder of Dr Mumtaz Haider, whose bullet-riddled body was found in Quetta on Tuesday.
Dr Baloch said that the lives of doctors were at stake as kidnapping for ransom and target killings were on the rise in and around Quetta. “Some doctors are considering quitting their jobs because of the insecurity. Dr Haider’s family had paid the ransom but his kidnappers still killed him,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2011.
Scheduled operations were cancelled and out-patient departments (OPDs) were closed in all major state-run hospitals of Quetta as doctors continued their strike for the third consecutive day on Thursday.
Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani took notice of the strike and has issued instructions that those doctors who do not resume their duties with 24 hours be sacked.
But most doctors remained unfazed by the chief minister’s ultimatum and only attended to emergency cases.
“It is the last day of mourning and doctors have already decided to re-open OPDs and operation theatres. Thus, the CM’s threat is totally irrelevant and completely uncalled for,” a Quetta-based doctor said, requesting anonymity.
Members of the Pakistan Medical Association’s (PMA) Balochistan Chapter seemed to have no knowledge of the ultimatum. “We are not observing a complete strike and I have no information about the chief minister’s statement,” PMA Balochistan president Dr Mazaar Baloch said. “The PMA will meet on Friday to decide its future course of action.”
Balochistan’s doctors went on strike to condemn the murder of Dr Mumtaz Haider, whose bullet-riddled body was found in Quetta on Tuesday.
Dr Baloch said that the lives of doctors were at stake as kidnapping for ransom and target killings were on the rise in and around Quetta. “Some doctors are considering quitting their jobs because of the insecurity. Dr Haider’s family had paid the ransom but his kidnappers still killed him,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2011.