PMA Punjab rejects teaching institutions ordinance

MULTAN: Pakistan Medical Association (Punjab) has rejected Medical Teaching Institutions Ordinance and decided challenging the ordinance in court besides launching an aggressive protest after Muharram.Addressing a joint press conference here on Wednesday, Punjab PMA president Dr Sahibzada Masood Syed and Multan PMA president Prof Dr Masoodur Rauf Haraj condemned the imposition of MTI through ordinance.They said the Punjab government had not only disappointed civil society but it had also deceived the entire doctors’ community and deviated from its commitments.They said the experiment of Medical Teaching Institutions Ordinance had failed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where free treatment facilities had been snatched from poor patients and now the same experiment was being repeated in Punjab to privatise public hospitals. Dr Masood said the Punjab PMA executive committee had met in Multan and decided an agitation and decided to challenge the ordinance in the Lahore High Court.He said the PMA would form a grand alliance with Young Doctors Association, Nurses Federation of Pakistan and Punjab Paramedics Associationto launch a protest against the government. He said civil society would be involved in the protest and no dialogue would be carried out with the government at any level because the government.Dr Masood said the MTI ordinance would pave the way for privatisation of public hospitals, depriving the public from the facility of free treatment. The MTI Ordinance would kill poor people and medicine prices would go up, he said.He said the Punjab PMA executive body would meet after Aushara at Sialkot to finalise protest strategy in joint collaboration with Young Doctors Association, Pakistan Nurses Federation, Punjab Para Medics, civil society, lawyers, media and other stakeholders of the society.Prof Dr Haraj said the government had betrayed from its commitments made with doctors. He said public would suffer a lot then doctors from the MTI Ordinance. He said the PTI stalwarts were failing the government through imposing MTI Ordinance.PMA Multan general secretary Dr Rana Khawar, executive committee members Prof Dr Amjad Bari, Dr Imran Rafiq, Dr Sheikh Abdul Khaliq and Dr Zulqarnain Hyder also spoke.

from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2PNbSbZ