March 4, 2002	Monday	Zilhaj 19, 1422

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MINGORA, March 3: Some local doctors, assisted by senior specialists, have formed an action committee to press the government for the withdrawal of its decision which banned their private practice.

Sources said that a meeting of the doctors, presided over by a senior member of the provincial action committee, was held at a hotel here on Saturday. The participants criticized the new health policy, saying it was neither beneficial to the public nor to the government, added the sources.

On this occasion, an action committee was also formed, which would work to bring the community on a single platform and raise voice for their rights.

Meanwhile, chief executive of Saidu Group of Hospitals, Prof Dr Peer Muhammad Khan, claimed to have taken all the doctors in confidence with regard to the government decision to ban their private practice. Most of the doctors were willing to work according to the new policy, he said, adding that the doctors had already started institution-based private practice in the government-run hospitals and stopped working in their clinics.

Many government-employed specialist doctors were still running their private clinics in the Swat district in violation of the new health policy, the sources revealed.