0
FAISALABAD, Jan 24: Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation Dr Mohammad Shafique has said that efforts would be made to withdraw the professional tax on doctors’ services in the next fiscal year.
He was speaking to the participants of the 17th National Conference of Orthopaedists, which started at a local hotel on Friday. The three-day moot has been organized jointly by the Orthopaedic Association of Pakistan and Punjab Medical College Faisalabad.
The minister assured the orthopaedic surgeons that government would provide all help for setting up orthopaedic departments in government hospitals as well as in the private sector.
He said the present government was very much aware of the problems of doctors, because four doctors had been nominated as ministers in the present cabinet. A doctor had been given the health portfolio for the first time in the province, he claimed.
He said more incentives and a better package would be provided to doctors to enable them to provide better services to the suffering humanity.
Pakistan Orthopaedic Association president Prof Dr Ghazanfar Ali Shah in his speech criticized the attitude of government agencies towards the doctors community with reference to Dr Amir Aziz and Dr Ahmad Jawed Khwaja and stressed the need for giving due respect to doctors in the society.
The chairman of the organizing committee, Prof Dr Rasul Ahmed Chaudhry, in his welcome address said the conference was aimed at updating the knowledge and sharing the experience in the light of rapid advances in the field of orthopaedic surgery.
The speakers urged the government to provide the necessary orthopaedic facilities and equipment in hospitals, saying that people had been facing innumerable problems due to lack of equipment for orthopaedic surgeries in government hospitals.
FESCO PRIVATIZATION OPPOSED: Pakistan WAPDA Hydroelectric Central Labour Union has demanded that the proposed privatization of the profitable Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) should be stopped and power rates reduced to provide relief to the people.
Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, union’s secretary-general, Khurshid Ahmed, All-Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions vice-president Haji Abdul Jabbar and other union leaders expressed grave concern over the proposal to sell 56 per cent of FESCO shares and hand over its management to the private sector “at the behest of international donor agencies”.
They said the privatization of power companies would have serious economic, social and political repercussions as it would further increase the power tariff, which was already beyond the means of the common man.
They further said that thousands of industrial units were on the verge of closure and scores of labourers had been laid off due to the escalating power tariff.
The privatization of FESCO, they claimed, would upset the finances of Wapda, which was using the profit made by companies like FESCO to cover the loss incurred by power supply companies in Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP. FAISALABAD, Jan 24: Punjab Minister for Excise and Taxation Dr Mohammad Shafique has said that efforts would be made to withdraw the professional tax on doctors’ services in the next fiscal year.
He was speaking to the participants of the 17th National Conference of Orthopaedists, which started at a local hotel on Friday. The three-day moot has been organized jointly by the Orthopaedic Association of Pakistan and Punjab Medical College Faisalabad.
The minister assured the orthopaedic surgeons that government would provide all help for setting up orthopaedic departments in government hospitals as well as in the private sector.
He said the present government was very much aware of the problems of doctors, because four doctors had been nominated as ministers in the present cabinet. A doctor had been given the health portfolio for the first time in the province, he claimed.
He said more incentives and a better package would be provided to doctors to enable them to provide better services to the suffering humanity.
Pakistan Orthopaedic Association president Prof Dr Ghazanfar Ali Shah in his speech criticized the attitude of government agencies towards the doctors community with reference to Dr Amir Aziz and Dr Ahmad Jawed Khwaja and stressed the need for giving due respect to doctors in the society.
The chairman of the organizing committee, Prof Dr Rasul Ahmed Chaudhry, in his welcome address said the conference was aimed at updating the knowledge and sharing the experience in the light of rapid advances in the field of orthopaedic surgery.
The speakers urged the government to provide the necessary orthopaedic facilities and equipment in hospitals, saying that people had been facing innumerable problems due to lack of equipment for orthopaedic surgeries in government hospitals.
FESCO PRIVATIZATION OPPOSED: Pakistan WAPDA Hydroelectric Central Labour Union has demanded that the proposed privatization of the profitable Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) should be stopped and power rates reduced to provide relief to the people.
Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, union’s secretary-general, Khurshid Ahmed, All-Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions vice-president Haji Abdul Jabbar and other union leaders expressed grave concern over the proposal to sell 56 per cent of FESCO shares and hand over its management to the private sector “at the behest of international donor agencies”.
They said the privatization of power companies would have serious economic, social and political repercussions as it would further increase the power tariff, which was already beyond the means of the common man.
They further said that thousands of industrial units were on the verge of closure and scores of labourers had been laid off due to the escalating power tariff.
The privatization of FESCO, they claimed, would upset the finances of Wapda, which was using the profit made by companies like FESCO to cover the loss incurred by power supply companies in Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP.
