RAWALPINDI - The young doctors agitated on Thursday against Punjab government for victimising the doctors after Gujranwala incident in which the Young Doctors Association (YDA) thrashed medical superintendent District Headquarter Hospital to get their contracts renewed.
The young doctors claimed that Punjab government was victimising the “Masehas” across the province. Though the YDA here did not observe strike and kept seeing patients in Allied Hospitals of DHQ, Holy Family Hospital (HFH) and Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), they arranged protest gatherings in the hospitals carrying placards and banners mentioning slogans against Punjab government and bureaucracy.
More than 200 male and female doctors gathered in front of new campus of Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) at HFH and bellowed slogans against the government for terminating and suspending the doctors. The protesting young doctors warned the government not to victimise the doctors for raising voice for their just rights and not to condemn the doctors unheard. Regarding the Gujranwala incident, the representatives of YDA Rawalpindi said a judicial inquiry should be conducted to bring out the facts and reasons that led the doctors get charged up.
Talking to TheNation, YDA BBH head Dr Waleed Abbasi said the doctors gathered outside RMC to express unity with the terminated and suspended doctors and protested against the inimical attitudes of the provincial authorities especially secretary health.
Explaining the steps taken by Punjab health department Dr Abbasi said 6 doctors had been terminated, over 12 suspended and their salaries stopped and over 60 had been transferred after the Gujranwala incident. He said YDA Punjab openly condemned the aggression shown by Gujranwala young doctors and always discouraged the actions bring bad name to the YDA.
Dr Abbasi said only a judicial inquiry could find out the reasons that led to the Gujranwala incident as some elements thrashed and provoked the protesting young doctors asking for release of their salaries. When the protesting doctors were beaten they rushed to the office MS DHQ Gujranwala and misbehaved with the administrator of the hospital. BBH YDA head Dr Waleed Abbasi, however said, YDA did not approve of the violence by the doctors and urge on the government to conduct judicial inquiry to unveil the factors that led to the violence in Gujranwala DHQ Hospital.