KARACHI, Sept 28: Doctors, paramedics and administrative staff observed a one-hour strike on Friday to protest against the killing of their colleague Mubashir Ahmed Sheikh, a senior doctor and professor of clinical pathology department at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

The doctor, who was also the principal of JPMC Medical Technology College, was shot by assailants near his clinic in Manzoor Colony on Wednesday evening.

Expressing their apprehension about the safety of doctors, staff and patients at the hospital, the protesters decided to revive the doctors’ association so that their voice could be raised and issues could be highlighted at an appropriate forum. A senior official of the ENT department was entrusted with the responsibility to revitalise the association.

A source in the hospital confided to Dawn that doctors and their associates were mobilising others to build up pressure on the hospital administration to do away with medical training and teaching practices on its premises. According to their views, the students of physiotherapy and medical technology colleges at the JPMC have always remain prone to exploitations by politically-motivated groups, the source added.

Security became a matter of concern for the doctors, staff and patients earlier when the two rival student groups clashed at the JPMC’s physiotherapy college last month. A medical student was bludgeoned to death on the hospital premises by his fellow students over an altercation which emanated over the payment of Rs16 on August 16, 2007. Yet another clash took place on August 25, again on the JPMC premises, between rival student groups which left one more dead.

Following the clashes, the hospital’s services remained suspended as each of the two student groups tried to establish its supremacy over the other. In this respect, the groups never felt it hard to bring in supporters from the nearby Sindh Medical College and other institutes, a JPMC doctor recalled, saying that the professor’s killing was being seen as part of the nuisance caused by outsiders in the guise of student activities.

A doctor on the condition of anonymity said the JPMC should abandon the two colleges, particularly when the teacher-students relation continued to deteriorate. The physiotherapy and medical technology colleges run and maintained by the JPMC could be held as a feather in its cap, but not a rewarding exercise at all, the doctor remarked. The protesting doctors and staffs will meet again on Saturday to review the security of patients, staff and doctors at the JPMC.