More agitation: Doctors call strike after Gujranwala hospital fracas

YDA demands release of 12 doctors arrested for manhandling MS.

LAHORE:

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab declared a strike at outpatient departments and indoor departments in public hospitals across the province on Wednesday following the arrest of 12 doctors in Gujranwala.

The doctors were arrested for threatening Dr Anwar Aman, the medical superintendent of Gujranwala District Headquarters Hospital, and ransacking his office. They included Dr Kashif Bilal, the president of the YDA chapter in Gujranwala.

News channels broadcast footage of the YDA members manhandling the medical superintendent and storming his office. Young doctors also roughed up reporters and cameramen covering the incident.

YDA Punjab chapter officials insisted that it was the YDA members who had been treated unjustly. “YDA Gujranwala has been the target of victimisation for several months. Young doctors are not being issued salaries on time and the contracts of many doctors are not being extended. We conveyed this to Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique and other officials but no action was taken,” said YDA Punjab Media Secretary Dr Mudassir Razzaq Khan.

He said that on Wednesday, YDA Punjab President Dr Javaid Aheer and other officials travelled to Gujranwala to settle the issue. “Paramedics acting on the directions of the hospital administration scuffled with the doctors,” he said.

“Some local activists of the PML-N beat up doctors and 19 including Dr Aheer suffered injuries. The issue should have been resolved peacefully but the bureaucracy made it worse,” Dr Khan added.



Addressing a press conference, YDA spokesman Dr Nasir Bokhari demanded the suspension of Health Secretary Arif Nadeem, saying he had instructed the local administration in Gujranwala to “victimise” YDA members. He also accused the secretary of delaying the implementation of a new service structure for doctors.

Dr Usman Dar, a member of the YDA General Council who was present in Gujranwala at the time, said an “outsider” in the crowd had shouted slogans denouncing media personnel, triggering a scuffle between the young doctors and reporters. He said the man who instigated the trouble then slipped away. He said 12 doctors had been arrested and the strike would continue until they were released.

Rafique, the special assistant to the chief minister, condemned the YDA’s attack on reporters and the medical superintendent. “I have sought a detailed report of the incident from the Gujranwala EDO (Health). Nobody will be allowed to take the law into their hands,” he said.

The General Cadre Doctors Association (GCDA) called an emergency meeting on Wednesday night and passed a resolution condemning the actions of YDA Punjab’s members in Gujranwala. GCDA President Dr Masood Shaikh said that there were 16,000 general cadre doctors on administrative seats at public hospitals in the Punjab and they would oppose the YDA’s actions. He said the young doctors should seek to resolve issues through talks, not violence.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2013.