The first-ever election of the Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) in Lahore’s Mayo Hospital was held on Thursday on the hospital premises in which young doctors participated with great zeal.
Earlier, the YDA elections had been postponed twice for multiple reasons ranging from the charges of financial malpractices and misconduct of young doctors with senior professors of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU).
According to details, two groups took part in the election: YDA Tigers and YDA Reformers. Both the groups claimed to be the true representative of the medical community prior to the election but the reformer group won the election with a margin of 400 votes. In all, 1,162 votes were cast during the polling that was conducted at the KEMU auditorium. The Tiger group bagged 377 votes while the Reformer group clinched 772 votes.
Earlier, the election had been scheduled for January 20, but was cancelled at the eleventh hour after two doctors approached the court and got a stay order against their suspension, challenging the electoral process till their restoration.
Dr Inamullah Barki and Dr Umair Rana had been suspended for misbehaving with senior professors of the university. The overall environment at the hospital remained quite tense during the past two months as both the groups were levelling accusations against each other.
It was being said that both the presidential candidates had been involved in financial irregularities. The central leadership of YDA Punjab came in to defuse the growing tension and disqualified both the candidates in view of the complaints filed against them. Later, both the groups announced their new presidential candidates.
According to election results, Dr Faizan Tiwana has been elected as the new president of YDA Mayo Hospital.
Earlier in the day, Dr Nauman Rafi Rajput, a candidate for the slot of vice president from Tiger group told Pakistan Today that he would accept the result as there was no chance of rigging at all. Commenting on the importance of YDA, he said that the YDA played an important role in safeguarding the interests of the medical community.
Dr Zafurallah from Reformer group told this scribe that the victory of his group was imperative because of its popularity among doctors. He was of the view that his group would strive hard for early construction of Surgical Tower as this tower had not been completed in past one decade despite repeated claims of the government.
According to sources, the winning group has the backing of Prof Khalid Masood Gondal, the senior vice president of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP). Gondal has studied at the KEMU and he therefore supported the Reformer group which has a majority of Kemcolians. The losing side was an amalgamation of foreign graduates who have come from Russia and China after graduating from there. Dr Salman Kazmi, who was the first general secretary of YDA, told Pakistan Today that it was a welcome result as Reformer group has overthrown such a group which was in office for the past many years.
