Happy slappers: Doctors strike, demand MPA’s arrest

‘We will continue to protest till Rao Kashif is taken to task’.

FAISALABAD:

Scores of doctors of public hospitals held a strike on Wednesday to protest against the non-registration of a case against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rao Kashif for slapping a doctor at the Sammundri tehsil headquarters hospital.

The strike was called by the Pakistan Medical Doctors Association and the Young Doctors Association. On Tuesday, the Young Doctors Association gave the government two days to register a case against the member of the Punjab Assembly and arrest him.

Dr Naseer Ahmad, a YDA office bearer, said, “Dr Saeed Wahla was slapped and humiliated because he had not extended ‘royal’ protocol to the lawmaker.”

Dr Ahmed said that the surveillance camera (CCTV) recording had shown that  Dr Saeed Wahla had been busy examining his patients when MPA Rao Kashif walked into the room and slapped Dr Wahla while his goons harassed him.

Dr Imtiaz Aslam, one of the doctors on strike, said that Kashif was a very influential figure in the area. “We know that his connections go to the top but we cannot allow him to humiliate one of our most professional and dedicated doctors.” “Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif must take notice of the incident, order the registration of a case against Kashif as well as initiate an impartial inquiry into the incident, he said. “Otherwise, doctors will walk out of all government-run hospitals in the city and will continue to protest against the government till our demands were met, he stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2014.