PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council on Saturday put its weight behind the protesting doctors in the province and called upon the provincial government to remove health minister Dr Hisham Inamullah.

A meeting of the council chaired by Ahmad Farooq Khattak advocate announced that all the demands made by the protesting doctors were genuine and the bar council would extend legal assistance to them.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of KP Doctors Council, including Dr Rizwan Kundi, and president and vice-president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association Lateef Afridi and Ali Zaman, respectively.

The doctors apprised the meeting of the situation with regard to their ongoing province-wide strike and demands.

The meeting expressed concern over the continuous strike of doctors, stating that it had been badly affecting the patient care in public sector hospitals. It urged the doctors that keeping in view people’s problems they should continue the provision of emergency cover to patients.

The participants demanded of the government to resolve the issue on emergency basis and take practical steps for addressing the demands of doctors.

The meeting expressed its surprise that on the one hand, an FIR was registered against a senior doctor by the administration, on the other police had not been registering an FIR of the said doctor who had received serious injuries when attacked by the health minister and his guards.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2019