PESHAWAR: Pakistan Peoples Party has expressed serious concern over suspension of health services in public sector hospitals and held the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government responsible for the police violence against doctors.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, PPP central information secretary MNA Dr Nafisa Shah condemned the police action against doctors and paramedics and asked the government to release the detained health staff and accept their demands regarding service structure.

Assuring full support to the Grand Health Alliance, the PPP spokesperson said that creating disorder and resorting to baton charge against doctors and sending them behind bars was a childish action on part of the rulers which proved that Pakistan Tehreek-i-insaf lacked tolerance.

Demands release of detained medics

Expressing solidarity with the doctors, she said that holding of peaceful rallies and protest demonstrations was the basic constitutional right of citizens.

Nafisa Shah said that PTI had paralysed life in the country during its prolonged sit-in in Islamabad, but it was not ready to allow others raise voice for their rights.

Flanked by party’s provincial general secretary Faisal Karim Kundi, Senator Rubina Khalid, MPA Nighat Orakzai and Peoples Doctors Forum president Dr Nisar, the lawmaker said that the government was not serious to fulfil its commitments with the nation though it had declared health and education emergencies.

The PPP leader also expressed reservations about promulgation of KP Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance to the entire province and said that her party’s government had scrapped FCR, but the PTI re-enforced it in the shape of this ordinance.

Faisal Karim Kundi and other leaders demanded of the National Accountability Bureau’s chairman to take action on an application submitted by the PPP provincial leadership against alleged corruption in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

They said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was in the habit of targeting opposition leaders by describing them as corrupt elements, but he (PM) failed to take action against people of his own party for their involvement in corrupt practices.

The PPP leaders said that they were not against accountability, but the process must be transparent, impartial and fair.

They said that the government should immediately stop targeting leaders of the opposition parties. They also expressed concern over increasing poverty and price hike and termed the government’s economic policy a total failure.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2019