Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Tuesday, expressing annoyance over delay in implementing the Punjab Healthcare Commission Act 2010 and resultant protest and strikes of doctors in public-sector hospitals, asked the Punjab Health Department’s counsel that whether the law would be implemented by 2020? Punjab Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana requested the court to grant three weeks time to get reply from the Punjab government on implementation of the law and filing the same on the petition pending in court on the matter. The LHC CJ, accepting the request, adjourned the case’s hearing until June 27.
The LHC CJ was hearing a petition challenging announcement of a fresh doctors’ strike and seeking directions to implement the Punjab Health Care Commission Act 2010. The court was told on behalf of the Punjab government that many petitions were pending in the LHC regarding doctors’ strike and a committee had been constituted, which was conducting an inquiry in this regard. Petitioner’s counsel Azhar Siddique argued that the petition was not only related to the doctors’ strike but it also requested implementation of the Punjab Health Care Commission Act 2010. He said that hospitals had become an industry, as there was no institution to monitor and regulate affairs of private-sector and government hospitals.
Siddique said that the act was passed in 2010 but it had not been implemented yet. The petitioner’s counsel said that neither the Punjab Health Commission had been constituted yet nor any appointments had been made according to new the law and hospitals were running affairs according to their own free will. The petition was filed by Muhammad & Ahmad, a public interest litigation firm against 25 respondents including the Punjab government, Pakistan Medical and Dental Association, Pakistan Medical Association, Young Doctors’ Association, inspector general of Punjab Police and different doctors’ representative organisations.
