VEHARI, June 26: The Excise and Taxation Department on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for 48 doctors, including 18 specialists, for not paying the professional tax.

Talking to Dawn, excise and taxation officer Jam Siraj said almost all doctors of the DHQ Hospital were defaulters.

He said most of the doctors had been running their private hospitals for the last many years.

He said they had been earning millions of rupees from their hospitals annually, but were not paying the professional tax. He said an amount of Rs2.5 million was recoverable from Vehari district doctors as professional tax.

The defaulters include Dr. Khalid Mahmood, a defaulter of Rs30,000, Dr. Ghulam Husain Asif (Rs20,000), Dr. Aslam Gondal (Rs20,000), Dr. Babar Ehsan (Rs30,000), Dr. Ahmad Tohid Bhatti (Rs26,000), Dr. Iftikharud Din Qureshi (Rs30,000), Dr. S.A. Farooq (Rs30,000), Dr. Mehmood A. Niaz (Rs19,000), Dr. Hanif Chaudhry (Rs16,000), Dr. Sher Ali (Rs26,000), Dr. Ahmad Masood Akbar (Rs15,000 and Dr. Parveen Kausar (Rs24,200).

It is learnt that some doctors of the DHQ Hospital have gone on leave due to the recovery campaign.