YDA asks govt to end political victimisation of doctors

Rawalpindi : The political crimes are being termed legitimate and in the name of bringing reforms, problems are being created in health sector while the prime minister is not being informed of the factual position as the implementation of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act would prove to be a cruel act for poor patients.

Chairman Young Doctors Association Punjab Dr. Shoaib Tarar said this while talking to media men in a press conference organised by the YDA at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) along with YDA’s chapters in Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital here at BBH on Wednesday.

Talking of the alleged political victimisation of doctors all across the Punjab province, he said the YDA is willing to resolve the problems in a peaceful manner but if the government continued using force, it would be responsible for the consequences.

The YDA organised the press conference to condemn the alleged political victimisation of medical professionals in Rawalpindi and across the Punjab province along with the government’s plan of implementing Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act in Punjab.

The YDA announced that it would react promptly against the political victimization of Dr. Tariq Masood Niazi, Medical Superintendent of BBH who was suspended when he refused to follow Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat’s ‘request’ of giving Dr. Areeba Abbasi her favourite posting in Dermatology Department of the hospital. Dr. Areeba is daughter of PML-N’s leader Hanif Abbasi.

The YDA also condemned the alleged political victimisation of a number of post graduate trainees in various hospitals of the province and announced that it would resist religiously against the government’s plan of implementing MTI Act in teaching hospitals in the province as it would make diagnostic and treatments services being provided in public sector hospitals unaffordable for majority of patients.

It is important that Dr. Niazi was suspended after a leaked telephonic conversation between Dr. Niazi and the Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja on December 16, 2018 that went viral on social media. In the conversation, the minister threatened the MS BBH of consequences when he refused to follow the minister’s request of posting Dr. Areeba on her favourite posting.

After suspension of Dr. Tariq Niazi on February 4, the YDA staged protest demonstrations on which the chief minister’s secretariat announced that it had directed the Punjab health ministry to reinstate Dr. Niazi but the ministry had only abolished his suspension and did not give any posting to him as yet.

Dr. Tarar said everybody knows that the law minister did wrong but Dr. Niazi is being punished. He said the Punjab Health Minister Dr. Yasmin Rashid assured him and YDA that Dr. Niazi would be reinstated within three weeks but nothing has yet been done in this regard.

He said after implementation of MTI Act, the laboratory tests at public sector hospitals would cost patients equal to that of private set-ups. The Punjab government is going to make government hospitals business centres instead of running them for the welfare of poor patients, he said.

The YDA has demanded the government to immediately reinstate Dr. Niazi on his post at the BBH and end all types of political victimization against medical professionals all across the Punjab, said YDA President at BBH Dr. Rana Azeem.

The YDA also demanded the Punjab government to pull back from its plan of implementing MTI Act in teaching hospitals.

The young doctors said if the government does not fulfill the YDA’s demands, the YDA would launch a series of protests, a movement against the government’s decisions throughout the province and the young doctors serving anywhere in the public sector across province would actively take part in the protest demonstrations.