ISLAMABAD, June 30: Trainee doctors at the Federal Government Services Hospitals (FGSH), commonly known as Polyclinic, held a protest demonstration against disconnection of power supply to the doctors’ hostel, in front of the hospital on Monday.

Iesco disconnected power supply to the hospital on June 25, saying that the Polyclinic had not cleared arrears amounting to Rs12.5 million from Feb 1995 to Feb 2002.

The management of the hospital, meanwhile, said it had already paid the arrears, but a fault in the billing system of the power utility had led to errors in the billing.

The hospital management referred to a decision reached at in a meeting on March 22, in which Iesco had conceded that there was no dispute on meter-reading, rather a wrong multiplying factor fed in the Iesco billing computer as 2 instead of 4 was responsible for the arrears which consequently amounted to Rs12.5 million.

It had also been decided that the Polyclinic would approach the ministry of health to arrange finances to clear the arrears. It was decided that if the financing authorities arranged sufficient fund then the payment would be made in a lump sump, otherwise the dues would be cleared in instalments.

Dr Javaid Chaudhry, MS of the Polyclinic, told reporters that he would join the trainee doctors’ protest and even approach the concerned court against Iesco if the situation was not rectified.

He said for the last three months, the Polyclinic had been in contact with the health ministry and the latter had forwarded a request to the finance ministry. The finance ministry, he added, had also assured them that the funds would be released the moment finances were arranged.

Dr Chaudhry said he had talked to the senior officials of Wapda and Iesco and even Deputy Speaker National Assembly had assured them that power supply to the hospital would be restored soon, but nothing had been done so far.

Carrying placards and chanting slogans, the trainee doctors marched towards China Chowk and remained there for some time.