Dozens of doctors were arrested. The police also uprooted the doctors’ hunger strike camp at Services Hospital. PHOTO: NNI
Doctors lay bedding on the road on Sunday evening, setting up a hunger strike camp that had earlier been uprooted from the service lane in front of Services Hospital. Many boycotted their jobs at public hospitals, though the YDA said it had not officially called a strike in protest at what it perceived to be a heavy-handed police response to their march.
DIG Rai Tahir visited the doctors’ hunger strike camp at Services Hospital early on Sunday morning to try and persuade them not to gate-crash the launch of the new bus service, which was heavily advertised over the course of several weeks by the Punjab government. The YDA refused and a heavy police contingent, including women officers, cordoned off Jail Road at 8.30am.
At around noon, the doctors came out of the camp and began marching towards the Canal. As they approached the security cordon, YDA Patron-in-chief Dr Hamid Butt asked the doctors to remain peaceful, and told the police officials to move aside.
Superintendent of Police Malik Awais informed him that they had been ordered not to let the doctors past. Dr Butt responded that they had five minutes to move away, after which the doctors resumed their march forward.
Scuffles ensued and the police launched a baton-charge. Dozens of doctors were arrested. The police also uprooted the doctors’ hunger strike camp at Services Hospital.
PPP Deputy Parliamentary Leader in the Punjab Assembly Shaukat Basra appeared at the scene and got into an argument with police officials. The police briefly beat him with sticks when he was seen lunging at a senior official.
Basra later told reporters that he was visiting his sick father-in-law at a nearby hospital when police officials streamed into the emergency ward to arrest doctors, leaving many patients without care. “The Punjab government’s actions reminded us of past dictatorships. To protest is the right of the people,” he said.
Young doctors withdrew their services from the emergency and indoor departments after their hunger strike camp was uprooted. The doctors arrested earlier in the day were released in the evening. They promptly joined the YDA hunger strike camp on Jail Road.
“The doctors were freed as a goodwill gesture. There were many dignitaries at the inaugural session ... we were ready to negotiate with the YDA, but they wanted to create a law and order situation,” said Khawaja Salman Rafique, the chief minister’s special assistant on healthcare, at a press conference in the evening.
YDA Media Secretary Dr Khurrum Shehzad said some doctors who had been beaten up by the police were in critical condition in hospital. He said doctors had withdrawn their services from public hospitals of their own accord in protest at the “brutal torture” by the police. He said the YDA would plan its response to the day’s events once the health of its members improved.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders Umar Cheema and Abdul Aleem Khan joined the protesting doctors at their hunger strike camp on Jail Road. They criticised the Punjab government for its handling of the doctors’ protest and demanded that their concerns be addressed.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2013.
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So here we have group of doctors who are putting themselves at risk and leading a protest against the corrupt rulers of Punjab with the hope that maybe, just maybe they might be able to muster enough support from the general public and put enough pressure on the government so that their demand are met and they are provided with the right resources to be able to their jobs, which is to save people’s lives. But instead of being applauded, appreciated or admired these doctors are being called a “mafia”. They are being told that they deserve to be beaten up for daring to raise their voices against the leadership, or shall I say dictatorship. This makes me sick. For the people who believe that doctors are doing this for their own welfare and to secure higher pay checks please do your research. Yes, their demands include a fairer wage package which they no doubt deserve more than these corrupt politicians like PLM-N that you people are backing, but the emphasis is based on facilitates and resources being provided in these hospitals. And for those people saying that other people are working harder for less money and not complaining because we are poor country, that’s now why they are working on low wages. They are working on low wages because thieves like the Sharif brothers are allowed to plunder are country again and again and still you people support them. Just because doctors have the guts to stand up to these people doesn’t make them villians
These doctors have become hooligans. Terminate their jobs and cancel their licenses to practice medicine ,permanently. Bring them down to earth. They do not know , how common man is living. They are money hungry bunch of Hooligan, creating law and order problem in the city.