LAHORE: Forty doctors were injured when police baton-charged them during a protest against the government for making the National Licensing Exam (NLE) mandatory for registration.

Reports said a number of doctors of public and private medical colleges tried to enter the examination centre at Barkat Market, Garden Town and police stopped them and made an attempt to disperse them which they resisted. Police resorted to baton charge, tear gas shelling and water cannons as a result of which 40 doctors suffered injuries, two of them critical.

Young Doctors Association office-bearer Dr Imran told Dawn that they were peacefully protesting when police arrived and started dispersing them. He said they tried to negotiate with police but they did not listen to them and tortured the doctors.

He said they would launch protest campaigns all over the country against the NLE and would not surrender till achieving their goal. He said the government could take examination from foreign doctors but why the local doctors who had reached the stage after sitting the entrance test were forced to appear in the NLE was beyond understanding.

The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has made it mandatory for all graduates who are currently doing house job or are ready for it to clear the NLE exam for their permanent registration. Both MBBS and BDS students must have to clear the NLE for their permanent job and medical practice in Pakistan. The move has agitated the medical fraternity which has been protesting for the last many months.

Meanwhile, politicians and civil society members condemned the police baton charge of the doctors. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif condemned the action by police to disperse the protesting doctors. “The use of batons and tear gas on doctors is regrettable,” Shehbaz said. He said the doctors were fighting coronavirus while the government was fighting doctors.

The PMC cancelled Friday’s examination and announced that it would now hold it on Sunday (tomorrow).

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021