In protest: Doctors to abstain from clinics, OPDs today

Representative bodies claim doctors are being targeted but the government does not seem to care

KARACHI: Targeted killings of health workers, extortion threats and apathy on the part of the government have compelled Karachi's doctors to close down clinics and OPDs across the city today (Monday).

The 'token strike' call is being supported by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), College of Family Medicine Pakistan (CFMP), Sindh Doctors Welfare Association, Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, Medical-Aid Committee and the Sindh Private Hospital and Clinics Association.

Their primary demand is that the government provide financial support to the doctors who have been targeted. They also want the government to allow them to carry arms for protection and transfer all the cases of doctors' killings to anti-terrorism courts.

"The government doesn't pay heed to doctors' issues and our only option now is to go on strike," said Dr Idress Adhi, the president of PMA Karachi. "We apologise to our patients for taking such a step," he said, adding that all emergencies and patients admitted to wards will be attended.

DIG Sultan Khawaja and health secretary Iftikhar Shilwani met a doctors' delegation on Sunday, assuring them that their issues will be resolved. Another meeting is scheduled for today (Monday), where the issues will be discussed in detail.

CFMP joint secretary Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro lamented that over 3,000 doctors, including consultants and general physicians, had left Pakistan due to security reasons. "Hundreds more plan to leave the country," he added. He said that doctors' associations have raised the issue of security with top government officials a number of times. "But no one cares."

The government, however, seemed indifferent. "All OPDs will remain open," said Sindh Health Minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar. "They [doctors] have assured us that it would only be a token strike." The minister added that the government was trying to resolve their problems.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2rd, 2015.