Hooliganism at hospital

It’s literally unimaginable! A group of individuals or professionals storming a hospital just to register a protest. Words fail to measure up the intensity of the inexplicable mix of feelings evoked by the violent attack from lawyers, numbering a couple of hundreds, at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) in Lahore yesterday. They are known for doing it on streets. They have even done it at courts. But how could they choose a hospital — and that too for treating heart patients — for a protest venue! But they did it, without a shred of remorse. They gate-crashed the public-sector hospital, vandalised public property on the hospital premises, torched vehicles parked there, and even ransacked the intensive care unit, forcing the doctors and the paramedics on duty to run for their lives. Left unattended, several patients — according to a doctor — lost their lives. Several others needing emergency treatment were left stranded in ambulances outside the Battleground PIC. The total lives lost numbered between 3 and 6, according to different claims.

Even during wars, hospitals are off limits to aggression. But the hooliganism at the PIC continued, with all its callousness, for more than three hours, even after the arrival of heavy contingents of police. Teargas shelling by the police failed to deter the lawyers — who were angry at the uploading of a ‘mocking video’ showing a group of their colleagues urging the IG to press charges against two doctors — and affected the patients instead. Even a provincial minister, Fayyaz-ul Hasan Chauhan, who had arrived at the scene for calming the protesters down and listening to their concerns, was treated scornfully — thumped, jeered at, and dragged by the hair. Having avenged their ‘dishonour’ from the ‘mocking video’ and satiated their egos, the disdainful lawyers eased out of the place raising spirited chants and flashing victory signs. And the police could only nab two dozen from among the hundreds of these hooligans.

The Prime Minister has taken a notice of the violent protest. These guardians of law must be taught how to respect the law. No one should go scot-free. Time for the government to enforce its writ.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2019.

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