10 February 2004	Tuesday	18 Zilhaj 1424

PESHAWAR, Feb 9: The NWFP Contract Doctors Association has expressed concern over the attitude of the provincial government towards resolution of its problems, including the association's demand to regularize services of contract doctors.

A meeting of the association, held at the Lady Reading Hospital here on Sunday with its President Syed Taimur Shah in the chair, said that thousands of contract doctors had been working in far-flung areas of the province on meagre salaries.

It said that successive governments had been promising the contractual doctors that their services would be regularized, however, nothing had happened even after seven years.

The meeting asked the NWFP government to follow the Sindh government example that had regularized the services of contractual doctors through an assembly act.

The association rejected the government's claim that doctors' contract had been extended, and stated that extension in their services had been linked to the passing of the public service commission examination.

The meeting said it was hard for the contract doctors to compete with fresh graduates and demanded their contracts should be extended without subjecting them to PSC examinations.

The association said the government had already terminated the services of dental surgeons and medical officers who failed to pass the PSC examination and said it was sheer injustice to the doctors who had got enough experience and had become part of the healthcare network.

It said these doctors were not given the benefits like their colleagues who were regular employees. The association's members said their experience must be taken into account at the time of their permanent appointment.