PESHAWAR, Feb 16: The NWFP Contract Doctors Association has expressed concern over what it called the "apathy of the government" and has asked it to regularize the services of contract doctors to end the prevalent unrest among them.

Speaking at a news conference here on Monday, Syed Taimur Shah, president of the association, said the government had failed to keep its promise with the 746 contract doctors regarding the regularization of their jobs. "We demand that the government exempt the contract doctors from qualifying the public service commission (PSC) tests and interviews, and extend their contracts," he said.

According to him, the government had decided to terminate the contract of doctors by announcing that their contracts had been extended for three years. The notification reads: "The competent authority is pleased to terminate the contract appointment of the 26 contract doctors from Dec 31, 2004, and to award fresh contract with effect from Jan 1, 2004, for a period of three years or till the arrival of the selectees of the NWFP PSC."

The association chief remarked: "It means that those not passing the PSC's examination will go home." He said these doctors had been working on contract since 1995. Every government had been making promise of regularizing their jobs, but none was kept, he deplored.

He said the contract of these doctors should be extended on the basis of their experience and be exempted from PSC's tests and interviews. The government, he said, had spent millions on the training of these doctors, which should be taken into account when making regular appointments.

It was "sheer injustice" on the part of the government to terminate the services of contract doctors and replace them "with their blue-eyed". The PSC tests and interviews for contract employees were in violation of the report of the Reforms Committee of the NWFP Assembly, he pointed out.

He said the PSC interviews for the posts of dental surgeons had been completed, in which only two, out of a total 65, had been selected, whereas the services of 63 had been done way with. He also expressed concern that even though a committee under health secretary had been formed by the chief minister, it had yet to show any progress even after the passage of six months.

He said MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad had instructed the provincial health minister to extend the contract of the doctors without subjecting them to PSC tests, but those instructions had fallen on deaf ears.

Mr Taimur said that barring the NWFP all other provinces had regularized the jobs of contract doctors. The NWFP government too should follow this example. According to him, they had given a deadline of Feb 22 to the government to postpone the ongoing interviews and save the doctors from being rendered jobless. He said that a meeting of contract doctors had been convened on Feb 18 in which the future line of action would be chalked out.