March 14, 2003	Friday	Muharram 10, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 13: The house officers of the District Headquarters Hospital on Thursday vowed to continue their strike till the acceptance of their demands.

The doctors went on strike on Tuesday night after the house officers and paramedical staff in the emergency ward of Pims were reportedly beaten by the relatives of a patient, Abdul Islam, who was pronounced dead by the doctors.

The relatives of the deceased alleged that their patient was not attended properly by the doctors at the hospital, while the doctors claimed that the patient was ‘received dead’.

The housing officers said the hospital administration, especially the medical superintendent (MS), had failed to provide them security cover.

Meanwhile, the Ganjmandi police on Thursday registered a case of Tuesday’s incident and assured the doctors that the persons, identified in the FIR, would soon be arrested. The doctors reiterated that they would continue their strike till the persons, who attacked them, were arrested.

Dr Asif Nakash, one of the victims, told Dawn that the police were using delaying tactics in arresting the people as they seemed to be influential.

In the wake of the doctors’ strike, the hospital administration has restricted the entry of more than one person with a patient into the emergency ward. Even the patients are not being allowed to enter the emergency ward without getting permission from outside. Some policemen, along with private guards carrying batons, have been deployed at the emergency gate.

CRITICALLY BURNT: Zaneer Qasir, a seven-year-old boy, suffered 70 per cent burn injuries when he tried to put off flames that had engulfed his kites in Shah Khalid Colony on Thursday, hospital sources said.