Medical community condemns targeted persecution of doctors
PPA holds press conference asking the government to provide protection.
PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
HYDERABAD:
The medical community has asked the government to put an end to incidents of violence being committed against doctors to stop the brain drain from the country.
“We are often criticised about not working in smaller cities and villages,” said the head of the Sindh chapter of Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA), Dr Salma Shaikh, during a conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Wednesday. “How can we work if we face such grave security threats?”
There has been a surge in cases of violence against doctors. Two paediatricians, Dr Mohan Lal Lohano and Dr Nasrullah Laghari, were kidnapped from Badin about two weeks ago. Additionally, two other doctors, who had been kidnapped from Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar, were released only after they allegedly paid ransom to their kidnappers.
“We want Dr Lohano and Dr Laghari to be located as soon as possible,” said Dr Shaikh. She also pointed out that a famous neurosurgeon, Aftab Qureshi, who headed the Neurosurgery Department at Liaquat University of Medical and Human Sciences, was killed during an encounter in Hyderabad in April, 2012.
Officials from the Anti-Violence Crime Cell and the Citizens Police Liaison Committee had participated in the encounter. The investigation report released by the police states that the neurosurgeon was killed from a bullet fired by a police official.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2013.
The medical community has asked the government to put an end to incidents of violence being committed against doctors to stop the brain drain from the country.
“We are often criticised about not working in smaller cities and villages,” said the head of the Sindh chapter of Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA), Dr Salma Shaikh, during a conference at Hyderabad Press Club on Wednesday. “How can we work if we face such grave security threats?”
There has been a surge in cases of violence against doctors. Two paediatricians, Dr Mohan Lal Lohano and Dr Nasrullah Laghari, were kidnapped from Badin about two weeks ago. Additionally, two other doctors, who had been kidnapped from Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar, were released only after they allegedly paid ransom to their kidnappers.
“We want Dr Lohano and Dr Laghari to be located as soon as possible,” said Dr Shaikh. She also pointed out that a famous neurosurgeon, Aftab Qureshi, who headed the Neurosurgery Department at Liaquat University of Medical and Human Sciences, was killed during an encounter in Hyderabad in April, 2012.
Officials from the Anti-Violence Crime Cell and the Citizens Police Liaison Committee had participated in the encounter. The investigation report released by the police states that the neurosurgeon was killed from a bullet fired by a police official.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2013.