The city's doctor community on Monday boycotted out-patient departments (OPDs) in all major public sector and private hospitals to protest against the rising incidents of targeted killings of doctors and extortion of money from them. The protest call was jointly given by Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Sindh Doctors' Welfare Association (SDWA), Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Medical-Aid Committee, College of Family Medicine and Private Hospital Association and several other organisations.
The protest demonstration and rallies were also organized in various private and public healthcare centres where doctors strongly condemned the increasing incidents of targeted killings and extortion in Karachi. The doctors of the city's Liaquat National Hospital also took out a rally to express solidarity with their colleagues who were killed in the incidents of targeted killings in past, while health practitioners in Aga Khan University Hospital performed their duties by wearing black armbands.
The OPDs of all governmental hospitals of the city, including Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Civil Hospital, National Institute of Children Hospital and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases remained closed as doctors observed strike against the targeted killings of their colleagues. The protesting doctors said that they would go on strike if they did not get proper security.
According to the PMA, 17 doctors were gunned down in 2014 in various areas of the metropolis, while four doctors murdered this year, so far, in the city. Talking to media, Sindh Doctors' Welfare Association's President Dr Ghulam Mujtaba Memon said doctors are leaving the country due to rising incidents of targeted killings and extortion. He said five doctors have been killed in the first month of 2015.
He said as per Pakistan Medical & Dental Council statistics around 3,000 specialists doctor have left the country in the past two or three years over various security concerns. He said there is great demand of Pakistani doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff in Arab and other countries, but the Pakistani doctors who prefer to serve their own countrymen are being killed.
He said the Sindh government has completely failed to protect the doctor's community. SDWA's secretary general, Dr Shan-e-Alam said the civil society and media should support doctors in getting the killing of medical practitioners stopped. Urging the provincial authorities to provide protection to health practitioners, he asked the government to announce compensation for the doctors killed in targeted killings. President of JPMC's Doctors Association, Jawed Jamali said a complete strike was observed in the hospital and all the OPDs services remained suspended due to doctors' protest.
Central President of Sindh Paramedical Staff Welfare Association, Akhlaq Ahmed Khan strongly condemned the killing of doctors in Karachi and supported the strike call given by doctors' organisations. He said security of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in Sindh was the responsibility of the provincial government.
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