Administration, police forced us to leave: research team

The team of 200 medical students and doctors, had gone to Thar for a research study

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI/MITHI: A strict order by the local administration and the police was the reason why a team of around 200 medical researchers were forced to leave the drought-hit area of Tharparkar.

This was revealed in court when the registrar of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) submitted their reply.

In a likely move to draw a veil over its poor performance in Tharparkar, the Sindh government had allegedly forced a medical research team to leave the drought-hit region.



LUMHS, which had taken a team of 75 doctors and 130 postgraduate, MBBS and LUMHS students to Tharparkar on a four-day visit on December 10, officially maintained silence over the incident. Although some senior professors and officials did speak to the media about the episode, they did not want to be identified fearing a reaction from the government.

However, a Tharparkar court's notice forced the university to explain the reason for their sudden departure. "On the second day a strict order was passed to all the teams which were dispersed in the six talukas by the local administration and police to close the camps immediately and leave the district," reads the reply submitted by the LUMHS registrar in the court on Monday.

"[The] female consultants and students in the team felt harassed by the attitude of the civil and police administrations and had to leave the district immediately and the girls were [also] exposed to the danger of travelling in the night despite the unsafe route and reach Hyderabad late in the night on December 11."

The team included 85 female doctors and students. The purpose of the visit was to treat the patients, organise counselling and awareness sessions about diseases, distribute free medicine and food items and carry out a research survey.

According to the varsity officials, the directives were conveyed through the local police while the doctors were at their camps. All the teams were asked to immediately wind up their work and return to Mithi to leave the district together.

For their part, the police have denied harassing or conveying any message to the doctors. "No threat was issued by the police against the medical team of LUMHS. All allegations against the police mentioned in newspapers are false and fabricated, hence carry no weight," reads the reply submitted by the Tharparkar superintendent of police.

The district administration's reply did not even mention the episode of expelling the doctors. "The district administration has always welcomed all stakeholders, who intend to work to reduce the miseries of the people," stated the deputy commissioner, Asif Jameel.

Notice on departure

The local court had taken notice on an application submitted by the lawyers of Tharparkar district bar association. Advocate Hamlesh Kumar and other lawyers had pleaded the court to find the rationale behind the dramatic departure.

"The government officials are trying to give an impression that our team was sent to Tharparkar on some agenda," an official of LUMHS told The Express Tribune. "They point to the meeting of LUMHS vice-chancellor with the Sindh governor a few days before the visit to justify their claim."

The official clarified, however, that the university had approached both the governor and the chief minister for a meeting with a delegation of the varsity doctors. "We sent letters to both of them on December 5. The governor house gave us time [for the meeting] on Tuesday [December 9] but the CM house earlier asked us to reduce the size of our delegation and even when we did so, did not reply for the meeting."

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2014.