THATTA, Nov 25: The People’s Doctors Forum has criticized what it called induction of only favourite people in the prime minister’s task force for providing relief to earthquake victims.

The forum at its general body meeting held here on Friday observed that without people’s participation, monitoring and accountability, desired results could not be achieved.

Sindh PDF head Dr Karim Khwaja presided over the meeting.

In a resolution, the forum said the Pakistan Psychiatric Society, opposition legislators, reputed NGOs, private sector and even provincial health departments had been marginalized and only members of the treasury benches, representatives of the federal health ministry and armed forces’ psychiatrists had been included in the task force.

Dr Khwaja, Dr Abdul Razzak, Dr Ismail Palijo and Dr Shams Shoro claimed that none of 370 psychiatrists of the country, except for some civil servants and armed forces’ psychiatrists, had been taken in the task force.

They said the World Bank had provided $1,000,000 for a comprehensive programme which included $48,000 for a support programme, $7,000 for advocacy activities, including training of government and NGO decision makers and workshops, $75,000 for preparation of standard materials, and $343,000 for other training and support programmes.