Young Doctors in Quetta Continue to Protest for the 25th Day
Doctors in Lahore Stage Protest after Torture
Student protest for the delay in releasing their results
26 June Protest as the International Day against Torture
Threatened Red Cross Closes Work in Quetta
Shia Community Targeted in Quetta, 8 Killed
Sadly enough, it has become typical of our country that bad examples are followed readily, particularly if there’ any chance of personal gain coming from doing so. The Young Doctors Association (YDA) is the most notable example in view. After protesting in Punjab for over a month, where the refusal of junior doctors to treat patients killed some 70 people, the wicked story of protest is being repeated in Balochistan.
It’s the 25th day now since the junior doctors in Balochistan have gone on protest, not seeing patients at the government hospitals, because they want a higher pay package and other benefits that doctors in similar ranks enjoy in the federal capital Islamabad. The Daily Times informs that the protesting doctors stage a public demonstration of protest in Quetta on Monday, May 23, 2011. Even scheduled operations were cancelled to make doctors available for protest, inviting suffering patient’s anger and disappointment.
People’s feelings of disappointment showed in that the number of people coming to see doctors for treatment in a government hospital has dropped from over a thousand to just about a hundred per day. Unlike doctors in Punjab, however, the protesting doctors in Balochistan haven’t left emergency service, which of course is commendable. But the general attitude is so pathetically wrong, translating into “give us more like you give some others, or else we’ll make the helpless people suffer.”
Obviously, the government’s own policies are flawed and evoke such contentions. Paying higher to those in the federal capital does raise the question “why them and not use?” The excuse that Islamabad is a costly place to live in also doesn’t work well. The government could surely tighten its taxation laws to provide free or inexpensive boarding to doctors in the federal capital instead of creating an obvious gap in pay packages that creates the sense of deprivation. Nevertheless, not seeing patients is an ultimately wrong way of protesting and the YDA stands as a living example of how education in Pakistan is creating money-dreamers rather than responsible citizens who can commit to work for the relief of their countrymen.
