JI urges Punjab government to accept young doctors demands

Lahore:Secretary General, Jamaat e Islami, Liaqat Baloch, has impressed upon the Punjab government to accept the lawful demands of the young doctors and not place them at the mercy of the bureaucracy. He was talking to a delegation of the Punjab Doctors Association (PDA) which called on him at Mansoora last evening.

Liaqat Baloch said that under the 18th constitutional amendment, Health had been made the responsibility of the provinces which were however not giving due attention to the doctors problems. He said, it would be unfortunate if the provincial government used state power against the doctors. Instead, the government should take keen interest in removing the doctors’ grievances.

He said, all three demands of the YDA, for a service structure, phased promotions and security of service were genuine. He said it was only due to the hard attitude of the government that thousands of able doctors were leaving the country.

The JI Secretary General also impressed upon the young medics to press their demands within the law and not resort to strikes which caused problems for the patients.

YDA General Secretary, Dr. Abu Bakr Gondal, informed the JI leader that around 4500 posts of Specialists were lying vacant in the Punjab hospitals and that the bureaucracy was creating hurdles in the creation of a service structure for them and the solution of their other problems. He said that the facilities being announced for doctors through advertisements were simply on paper.