KARACHI: Like previous years, 2011 also remained depressing for the doctors’ community as in addition to frequent reports about abduction of their colleagues and money extortion cases at different health care centres in Sindh, including Karachi, at least four doctors were killed by what were described as the “faith motivated” or “money hungry” criminals.

In the situation where neither the state functionaries were found effective in providing security to the community nor did society in general console them, doctors are in a fix about continuing their services for the cause of humanity.

Three of the four doctors were killed in the metropolis during the last two months.

On the penultimate day of the year, a 55-year-old professor of microbiology belonging to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) was shot dead in his car in front of his wife and driver near Submarine Chowk in the Defence Housing Authority.

Police described the incident as a car snatching attempt.

Subsequently, the year ended with all out-patient departments at the JPMC and Civil Hospital Karachi remaining shut in the wake of the murder.

The last day of the year was observed as a black day by doctors who mourned the death of Prof Saleem Ahmed Kharal.

In her immediate reaction to the killing, Sindh chapter president of the Pakistan Medical Association Dr Samreena Hashmi had said: “We condemn the murder. Where is the government writ?

How and why should we work in an insecure environment?”

“The community, which had mourned the recent killing of Dr Mehboob Siddiqui and Dr Baqar Shah, will have to wake up for the sake of their own safety,” said Dr Abdul Malik of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association while commenting on the issue.

According to the Karachi chapter of the PMA, the killing of doctors has continued with intervals since the 1990s. Eight doctors lost their lives to hostilities on a yearly average.

In 2010 when five doctors were killed the law-enforcement agencies claimed that suspects involved in the killings had been arrested.

Most part of the following year remained peaceful in that no doctor was killed till October. It was only during the last two months of 2011 that at least four doctors, three of them in Karachi, were murdered.

Before the killing of Prof Kharal in Defence, Dr Mehboob Siddiqui was murdered in front of a hospital in Malir.

Earlier, Dr Shafqat Ali Tariq was gunned down in Shah Faisal Colony.

Dr Hashmi also recalled the killing of three MBBS qualified doctors belonging to the Hindu community at a clinic in Shikarpur.

Kidnap, extortion The Sindh PMA chief also protested over the kidnapping of doctors working both in the public and private sectors. She said doctors were being harassed on one pretext or another and made to feel that they had been pushed to the wall.

She said evil guns were once again aimed at doctors. The situation warranted urgent attention of the authorities or it would result in an increase in human capital flight, she added.

Karachi PMA president Dr Idrees Adhi said that extortion cases remained on the rise during 2011.

“The doctors who succumbed to the pressure of the criminal elements and groups survived only after paying huge amounts of money. Besides, clinics were made to pay monthly protection money in different areas of the city.”

He said the situation had started improving during the tenure of Sindh police chief Fayyaz Leghari. But the killings in recent months had once again caused doctors to expect another wave of killings in the province, particularly in Karachi, he added.

The security authorities were failing to feel the gravity of the situation and pay attention to doctors’ apprehension and demands, Dr Adhi said.

Another senior doctor, Habibur Rehman Soomro, said doctors had been soft targets for all types of hostilities, including murder, harassment, kidnapping for ransom and extortion. “One of the four doctors kidnapped in November alone had not been recovered as yet,” he said.

“Our colleagues have been pressing us to call a complete strike or a tool-down strike as an effective solution to the problem of societal disregard towards them. But we convince them that our hands are tied as we are under the oath to carry the tremendous obligations towards the patients, towards society and towards humanity at large,” Dr Soomro said.

However, he said, they would not be able to meet their commitment until doctors were provided protection.

About 4,000 doctors have left the country in recent years for the sake of their and their family’s safety, he said.