LAHORE – The city’s traffic was backed up for miles as members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) blocked almost all major roads on Thursday. Huge traffic jams were seen on The Mall, Canal Bank Road, Ferozepur Road and Jail Road. Students from Allama Iqbal Medical College came out of the back gate of the college along the Canal Bank Road and sat on the road blocking it completely. The traffic coming from the city side on the Canal Bank Road was diverted from the new campus underpass. Jail Road was blocked in front of the Services Hospital while Ferozepur Road was blocked as well.
Doctors from the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) and Children’s Hospital initially took out a rally on Ferozepur Road. Protesting doctors marched up to the Punjab Assembly building on The Mall and staged a sit-in on the road. The were carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands and shouting slogans against the government. The protest took a political turn when Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) senior leader Chaudhry Zaheerudin walked out of the Punjab Assembly session along with two female ministers and joined the protestors sitting on The Mall. “Every major section in the Punjab including doctors and teachers is protesting against the government policies…doctors are the brains of the country and the PML-Q supports the doctors in their demands,” Zaheeruddin said. Minutes later, Punjab Minister Dr Asad Ashraf came along with other ministers to placate the young doctors.
“The Punjab Assembly speaker has formed a committee consisting of five MPAs, all of whom doctors, to negotiate with young doctors to resolve their issues,” he said, adding that even the chief minister had conveyed from London his resolve to solve their issues. The YDA announced a sit-in outside 90 The Mall on March 21.
Napolean Qayyum, central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party Minorities Wing, said the YDA was treating patients outside the hospitals and it was time the Punjab government accepted their demands. Young doctors then gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the Punjab health government and threatened that if the demand was not met they would stop working in IPDs as well. The Punjab government has engaged the parents of doctors who were actively participating in the protests.
The government has always said it does not have enough funds to accommodate the doctors’ demand at the moment. A health department official claimed that the government had tried its level best to convince the young doctors but the doctors seem “stubborn” over the issue. The official said that the Punjab government would fulfill the promise made by the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif but at an “appropriate” time”. Show-cause notice issued to striking doctors: The administration of various medical colleges of Punjab issued show-cause notice to more than 177 students on Thursday.
According to the Health Department, around 131 students were delivered warning letters for being part of the salary increase drive for the last 17 days. Medical colleges’ administrations issued three copies of show-cause notices: one for the doctors, one for the parents and another to the College of Physician and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP). The administrators said that the action was taken to save time and bring the Health Department in a position to take stern action against doctors. Medical college administrations also mentioned in the show-cause letter that they would be fired by March 21 if they did not end the strike.
