(Publish from Houston Texas USA)
(By Muhammad Mansoor Mumtaz Lahore)
Pakistan Medical Association President, Professor Shahid Malik, has strongly condemned the decision of the Punjab Finance Department to abolish more than two thousand doctors’ posts.
He said that abolishing regular posts of doctors in grades 18, 19, and 20 in government hospitals and converting them into locum (temporary) positions is a grave injustice to doctors who are already serving in the system on a permanent basis. The current bureaucracy of the Finance Department is continuously abolishing doctors’ posts and diverting the allocated funds to other budget heads, which is highly unfortunate and strongly condemnable.
Professor Shahid Malik stated that appointing doctors on locum or daily-wage basis will destroy the entire health system. It will not only damage the service structure but will also make promotions of senior and regular doctors to grades 18, 19, and 20 impossible, because promotions require the availability of sanctioned posts.
He has appealed to the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court to take immediate notice of this matter and suspend the notification issued by the Finance Department, so that the bureaucracy can be stopped from taking such actions and be prevented from repeating such moves in the future.
