Medical practitioners' rights: Court issues show-cause notices in doctors' timescale plea

SUKKUR:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) Sukkur bench issued show-cause notices to the chief secretary and the health secretary on Tuesday for failing to implement the verdict to give timescale to doctors throughout the province.

Earlier in 2010, a constitutional petition was filed by the Pakistan Medical Association Sindh chapter's join secretary, Dr Usman Mako, and others. The petitioners had claimed that more than 11,000 doctors in Sindh, including specialists, dental surgeons and general physicians are working at grade-17 for the last 23 years and waiting for their promotions to higher pay scales. But they are being denied raises by the government, the petition said.



On June 1, 2011, the SHC Sukkur bench had ordered the Sindh government to grant timescale to the doctors but, despite the lapse of more than two years, the government has failed to implement the verdict of the court. "We have filed contempt applications against the Sindh government and, after a hearing, the honourable court had reserved its verdict on December 17, 2013," PMA's Dr Mako told The Express Tribune.

According to him, the reserved verdict was announced on Tuesday when the SHC issued show-cause notices to the respondents and asked them to appear before the court within the next two weeks and explain in person why the court order was not implemented. More than 11,000 may be affected by the court’s decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2014.