LAHORE, April 10: The Punjab Health Department has issued show-cause notices to different doctors, including PMA president Yasmin Rashid, for indulging in the acts of subversion and indiscipline by observing a strike in hospitals and staging a protest demonstration in front of the Governor’s House.

They have been asked to reply within seven days as to why a disciplinary action may not be taken against them under the Removal from Service Ordinance, 2000, on account of misconduct and insubordination.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Health Minister Prof Mahmood Ahmad said the government would take strict disciplinary action against the protesters. He said his department was identifying other protesters to furnish them show-cause notices.

Some 14 doctors have so far been issued notices, it is learnt.

The health department has stated, in show-cause notices, that the government has sufficient grounds to believe that the doctors concerned had indulged in the acts of subversion and indiscipline. The department has charged these doctors for instigating and coercing government servants and doctors to go on strike. They are also charged for using force to disrupt the smooth running of all autonomous teaching hospitals in the city. They attempted to hamper the delivery of essential services to the patients, damaged the government property, record and OPD registers to the detriment of the public in general and patients in particular. They have also been charged for creating law and order by staging a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House.

Meanwhile, the PMA president in a statement said she would continue to fight for the rights of medical profession. She reiterated PMA’s demands for improvement in the law and order situation, increase in the salary of junior doctors, increase in the stipend of postgraduate students and house officers’ salary equal to the salary of BS-17.

She said the government should recruit doctors through the Public Service Commission and implement new rules and regulations in autonomous health institutions after consultation with the representatives of the medical profession.

She said the PMA had also called its central council meeting in Islamabad on April 14 to finalize the further line of action.