PESHAWAR, July 20: Medical graduates of private colleges, currently doing house jobs, have asked the government to give them monthly stipends like their counterparts who had graduated from public sector colleges.

Talking to Dawn, they said it was strange that the government was not giving monthly stipends to those doctors who had done their graduation from private colleges. These doctors argued that they performed duties similar to their colleagues from the government colleges, but were not paid stipend which amounted to deprivation of their due rights.

They termed the government attitude towards them step-motherly and demanded that they should be given stipends to remove the prevalent sense of deprivation among them. This action was the worst kind of discrimination between the doctors of public and private medical colleges, they deplored.

Such discriminatory attitude had discouraged medical graduates of private colleges and fresh students were reluctant to seek admission to private colleges. According to them, they were selected for house job against the seats sanctioned by the government and an amount for their stipend had also been allocated in the provincial budget. But, the amount was transferred back to the finance department.