KARACHI:Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Thursday expressed its concern about the unfortunate incident that took place in Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar, in which the provincial health minister and his guards thrashed assistant professor Dr Ziauddin Afridi.
Secretary General, Pakistan Medical Association (Centre), Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad in his statement, said the health minister visited the hospital with Prof Nausherwan Burki where they beaten up Dr Afridi so brutally that he fell unconscious after suffering head injury.
He said PMA condemned this brutality. It is very shameful that the health minister himself tortured a doctor in the premises of the hospital and hence promoted violence against healthcare providers. This is totally not acceptable. The minister is supposed to be responsible to provide security to the doctors of KPK.
Dr Sajjad said PMA was always against the suspension of medical facilities at hospitals but now the poor patients were suffering in the month of holy Ramadan because of the closure of the hospital services by the protesting doctors. The government is responsible for the whole tragic situation. It is responsibility of the Chief Minister to negotiate with the doctors and meet their demands to calm the situation immediately.
He said doctors were very much united at all levels and knew how to tackle such situations and they reserved the right to protest but believed that the amicable settlement could resolve the issue and the sufferings of the poor patients would also be reduced.
He demanded from the Prime Minister of Pakistan who is also the head of PTI to take notice of the untoward incident and initiate high level inquiry into the matter and affected doctor should be provided justice, so that patients could also get themselves treated easily.