Doctors and death

At least four doctors have been killed in the year that has just passed.

Death has come again for a doctor in Karachi on the last day of 2011. Dr Saleem Kharal, a department head at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, was shot dead while he was out in his car with his wife. The reasons for the murder are unclear, but they have angered doctors across a city which has seen too many members of the profession die over the years. At least four have been killed in the year that has just passed. Many others also fell since the 1990s, according to the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA). In some cases, the motives for these murders appear to have been strictly sectarian. Doctors belonging to religious minorities are being targeted more than ever, as related in the murders of several prominent doctors from the Ahmadiyya community. Apart from this, doctors are also being threatened in a much more organised fashion, through extortion mafias. These mafias, which have been linked to political parties, have been accused by the medical community of demanding bribes as protection money.

Though the PMA has called for action repeatedly, not much has been done. Security agencies plays part of the blame on doctors themselves, saying they do not provide the police with enough information to act on. However, doctors rightly point out that if they bring their cases to the police, they will not be adequately protected during a judicial inquiry. Rather than engaging in circular debates, there are concrete steps that must be taken to protect the medical community. Where killings are motivated by religion, the government must crack down on the activities of militant groups. Extortion mafias must be dismantled, no matter who their backers are. For this, doctors must work with the police force, which in turn must guarantee them protection. It is estimated that, over the years, some four thousand doctors have left the country. The exodus means fewer physicians to treat people where there are already very few qualified physicians.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2012.