Shaikh Zayed Hospital: Doctors may move court against transfer

Instead of protesting or boycotting, doctors have decided to move court against this decision.

LAHORE:

Senior doctors met at Shaikh Zayed Hospital on Wednesday to discuss the hospitals transfer from the federal government to the provincial government.

A participant in the meeting said that the doctors had serious reservations about the transfer, but they had decided not to hold public demonstrations or to go on strike.

“Instead of protesting or boycotting, we have decided to move court against this decision. We will soon discuss our future line of action and announce it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Ishaq Dar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, welcomed the transfer of the institute as an end to 18 months of negotiations over its control. He said that the transfer had been part of negotiations with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for passage of the 20th Amendment.

Addressing a ceremony for the inauguration of faculty lodges and an exam centre at the University of Health Sciences, Dar said: “We promised the PPP-led federal government that when SZH is transferred to Punjab, the provincial assembly would pass a resolution within 48 hours in favour of a Drug Regulatory Authority at the centre to exercise coordinated control over the drugs manufactured in Pakistan or imported,” he said. He said that the notification for the transfer of the hospital had been issued on Tuesday evening and the assembly had passed the resolution within 16 hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2012.