An order issued by Peshawar’s deputy commissioner said the detainees had been sent to the jail under 3-MPO for making a violent entry to the LRH, blocking a major road, paralysing activities in the provincial capital, and badly damaging property.
The doctors and paramedics announced that the strike would continue until the detainees were freed and their demands were met. Their representative body, named the Grand Health Alliance, demands that the government reverse the enactment of the Regional and District Health Authorities Bill (RDHA), and remove health minister Hisham Inamullah Khan. The alliance claims that the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act enforced across the province in 2015 had caused ‘great harm’ to the teaching hospitals, while this new bill – RDHA – would do the same to the district health facilities. The Pakistan Medical Association has also thrown its weight behind the protesters and asked the government not to enforce the new legislation without consulting stakeholders, especially doctors. We hope the government resolves the matter by speaking to the protesters instead of trying to impose its will by force.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2019.
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