September 16, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1424

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PESHAWAR, Sept 15: Pakistan Islamic Medical Association has urged the government to regularize the services of doctors who have been working on a contractual basis for many years.

Addressing a joint press conference here on Monday, provincial president of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) Dr Abdul Aziz Zia and chief of the Contract Doctors Association, Mohammad Ejaz Khan expressed concern over the poor conditions under which doctors were forced to work.

Dr Zia said about 1,200 doctors, including 200 lady doctors, were working on a contractual basis for the last five to eight years, having meagre salaries. He said 1,100 contract doctors were employed by the government in 1995 and they were promised that they would be regularized next year.

“The next year never came as we are still working on a contractual basis. Successive governments have been making promises to us but none of them have kept these promises and we are running from pillar to post to get our jobs regularized,” said Dr Ejaz.

According to him, most doctors were employed in areas such as Chitral, Dir and Hazara, where permanent doctors were unwilling to be posted.

He lamented contract doctors worked for Rs5,000 per month that were not sufficient to meet their personal expenses, let alone that of their families.

He was of the view that every year, these doctors had to pass the public service commission test in order to become eligible for continuation of their contractual employment. Nevertheless, he said, there was no need for  doctors to take the PSC tests for getting employed on a contractual basis.

Dr Ejaz said the PSC had again asked doctors already working to appear for the test and interview in order to continue their jobs for one more year, which he said was unjust and against the prescribed rules.

He wondered on the one hand the director-general health services was conducting interviews for 525 vacancies while on the other the PSC had announced dates for the test to appoint 927  doctors on a contractual basis.

Doctors were being appointed on contract at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, the Lady Reading Hospital and the Hayatabad Medical Complex by heads of these institutions, he said.