ISLAMABAD: The city police on Wednesday baton-charged protesting doctors (foreign medical degree holders) after they refused to vacate Srinagar Highway, which they had blocked for traffic.

According to details, doctors who obtained degree from foreign universities staged a sit-in outside the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) demanding of the commission to accept their degrees.

Later, they blocked Srinagar Highway for all kinds of traffic to press the PMC to register them as medical professionals and doctors. They refused to budge unless their demands were met.

Following this, the police baton-charged them and fired water cannons at them.

Protesters were of the view that the degrees of the foreign graduates who obtained degrees after 2020 were not accepted.

All universities of Kyrgyzstan have been blacklisted, they said, adding that all universities are certified by the WHO.

They said that all the students were sent abroad for obtaining medical degrees as per the PMDC rules, and now the government was not accepting their degrees.

Police resorted to baton charge and tear gas shelling, when the doctors refused to vacate road despite request of senior officials of the district administration and officials of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP).

Police have also taken into custody several doctors and shifted them to various police stations.

Huge traffic jam was witnessed at Srinagar Highway due to the protest of the doctors.

The commission recently announced that it had blacklisted 17 universities in Kyrgyzstan, and would not acknowledge the degrees of over 8,000 Pakistani students there.

Students have been given a year to either return to the country or get a transfer.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021