27 June 2004	Sunday	08 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, June 26: The Staff Action Committee of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, on Saturday, urged the hospital management and provincial government to recover Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed who had been missing since June 17.

In the action committee meeting held at NICVD, doctors said that they were recording their peaceful protest but it seemed that the government had no concern over the security of doctors since it was not paying attention to this serious issue.

NICVD's acting director Dr Asaduallah Kundi said that the joint action committee had agreed not to resort to total strike but would observe token strike from Monday.

In the larger interest of patients, he said, the doctors had assured that routine and regular surgeries would not be affected nor any patient visiting the institute would be refused.

He mentioned that following his conversation with Federal Health Minister Naseer Khan, a delegation comprising Prof Younus Khatri and one of the doctors nominated by NICVD's action committee would leave for Islamabad within the next few days to meet the minister and get the matter expedited.

After the meeting, doctors staged a peaceful protest demonstration and marched in the hospital premises. -PPI/APP