June 22, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 21: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Punjab on Thursday threatened litigation against provincial government over hiring the services of retired army men for managing health institutions.

PMA Punjab President-elect Dr Khalid Randhawa in a statement said the doctors might also resort to agitation if the government did not reverse its decision of using the services of army men.

The doctors were already opposed to government’s move of deploying retired rankers both JCOs and NCOs for their monitoring and reemployment of retired doctors on contract.

However, the provincial government ignored their protest and appointed a retired brigadier as the chief executive of Social Security Hospital in Rawalpindi. This led to further worsening of the relations between the doctors and the government.

Doctors claim that the appointment of the retired brigadier against a newly created vacancy was illegal. They quote the example of another similar appointment that had to be cancelled after objection of the auditors.

The PMA president said he saw no reason for replicating in Social Security Hospital a system that had already failed in other government hospitals.

Dr Randhawa said the doctors see the use of retired army men for management of medical institutions as a conspiracy to promote feelings of hatred for army among the doctors.

He said he doubted the loyalty of government advisors, who suggested such insensible moves.