Requesting surety: Provincial adhoc doctors demand regularisation

PESHAWAR:

Adhoc doctors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) once again protested for their jobs to be regularised.

In a protest march from the Lady Reading Hospital to the Peshawar Press Club on Friday, the Adhoc Doctors Action Committee (ADAC) alleged that previous governments had regularised all doctors, but the current government has not fulfilled their demands despite repeated press conferences and meetings with officials.

“These 450 doctors of K-P and FATA were appointed on adhoc basis for one year and are working in basic health and rural health units, as well as in the district headquarter hospitals in Dir, Chitral, Tank and Lakki Marwat,” ADAC Senior Vice-President Dr Muhammad Kashif told The Express Tribune. “About a month remains for the year of service to end, but there is no hope of regularisation.”

He said that 2,000 posts for doctors have yet to be filled and a sense of deprivation among doctors prevails.

“There are specific rules in many government departments for promotion of staff but doctors were appointed on adhoc basis for one year,” Kashif said. “We are not allowed to get specialisations and other trainings during our period of service.”

Dr Asfandyar, a committee member from FATA, said that if the government fails to resolve the issue, the doctors will approach the Peshawar High Court for a legal battle.

“If the government does not address our problems, we will suspend services in all major hospitals in the province and then the government itself will be responsible for the problems faced by patients,” he said.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti had earlier announced the induction of around 4,000 doctors.

A convention of Young Doctor Association and Provincial Doctors Association will be held on September 25 and a future strategy will be discussed, Asfandyar said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.