Doctors’ strike: Balochistan to suspend protesting medics

Considers withholding salaries, barring them from travelling abroad.

QUETTA:

With the doctors’ strike entering its 38th day, the Balochistan government is contemplating the suspension of 80 protesting doctors, withholding their salaries and barring them from travelling abroad.

Addressing a news conference on Saturday, Health Secretary Asmatullah Kakar said that 80 protesting doctors, against whom a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered, ought to be suspended. A decision in this regard, however, will be taken after Muharram.

Regarding withholding their salaries, Kakar said that a summary has been forwarded to the chief secretary, and the protesting doctors would be barred from getting their remuneration for November.

He added that investigations would be launched against doctors who are set to go abroad, and those against whom an FIR has been registered will also face a travel ban.

Kakar informed the media that action would also be taken against doctors who are working in private hospitals without No Objection Certificates (NOCs).

He added that an investigation will also be carried out against un-registered hospitals and that the Heart and General Hospital would be sealed. New doctors would be appointed in place of those suspended, Kakar said.

The annual budgets of the Bolan Medical Complex and the Civil Hospital are under inspection and would be transferred to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH). According to sources, a complaint against the protesting doctors has been sent to the chief minister, who has directed strict action against them.

Doctors in Balochistan went on a strike after Dr Saeed Khan, an eye specialist at the LRBT, was kidnapped on October 16.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2012.