LAHORE – All attempts on the part of the Punjab government to placate the striking doctors have failed; not even a special pay allowance of Rs 10,000 to 15,000 for doctors from the 1st of July could convince them to call off their strike.
Zulifqar Khoosa, senior adviser to chief minister, tried to woo the doctors with a lucrative pay package at a meeting on 90 The Mall but doctors were adamant they won’t make do with anything less than their demands. Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad also tried to convince the young doctors to call off their OPD strike but they gave him the cold shoulder.
Sources said the young doctors after the meeting with their “leaders” decided to go ahead with their strike on Monday. The Health Department also agreed to provide them with ‘minutes of the meeting’ held at Lahore General Hospital as proof of the government’s promise to increase their salaries.
Sources in the Health Department said the Punjab government had decided to give a substantial increase of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 in the young doctors’ pay at the LGH meeting. Sources said that doctors are demanding the government fix Rs 70,000 as monthly pay for a house officer and Rs 12,000 as monthly pay for a postgraduate trainee but the government promised to increase their salaries by 20 percent only.
Young Doctors Association Lahore Services Hospital President Dr Usman Ayub told Pakistan Today that they would meet Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal in his chamber at 11:00am on Monday and only then they would be in a position to take a final decision. He said the government had made many promises to young doctors in the past but those were never fulfilled.
He said the young doctors sought ‘concrete assurances’ from the government so that it could never renege on its promises again. He said if the Punjab government was serious about resolving the matter, it should it issue a pay increase notification at once. “If the government can increase pay packages of the Punjab Police and judges, why is it reluctant to increase doctors’ salaries?” he questioned.
Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) General Secretary, Dr. Izhar Chaudhry told Pakistan. Today that some officials from the Young Doctors Association (YDA) requested the PMA to join them in their strike but the PMA refused. He said that some medical colleges’ principals and professors did not want a peaceful atmosphere in hospitals, so they were using young doctors for their own vested interests.
He also said some elements were against the health secretary, so they were creating problems for him.
Young doctors refuse to budge
