LAHORE: Hearing a petition of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) for a judicial inquiry into the Sahiwal hospital nursery fire, Lahore High Court acting Chief Justice Shujaat Ali Khan on Thursday ordered the doctors to immediately end their strike.

The acting chief justice remarked that the doctors should be in hospitals, not in courts, and advised them to perform their duties.

He noted that Punjab is the largest province with a population of 120 million people who rely on doctors. He observed that doctors and engineers are the country’s assets and assured that the doctors would be provided with all kinds of protection.

The court asked for a guarantee that the doctors would end their strike.

YDA President Dr Shabbir Niazi filed the petition through Advocate Noshab A Khan.

The counsel said even the young doctors did not want to continue the strike. He argued that a judicial inquiry committee should be formed to investigate the Sahiwal incident.

He requested that the actions taken by the health department following the Sahiwal hospital incident be declared illegal, the postgraduate training termination order be suspended until the final decision on the petition, and the termination of doctors’ ad hoc jobs be nullified.

The acting CJ noted that the relevant authorities had not been arrayed as respondents in the petition. He directed the petitioner’s counsel to amend and refile the petition.

Separately, Justice Shahid Karim dismissed a petition against the strike of young doctors in public hospitals of the province.

The judge observed that the matter fell within the domain of the government and the court had nothing to do with it.

On June 8, a fire erupted in the nursery of Sahiwal Teaching Hospital causing the death of at least 11 newborn babies. The chief minister had ordered action against the responsible officials and four senior doctors, including the hospital MS, were arrested and terminated.

In protest of the government’s actions, the young doctors went on strike.

Election tribunal notices

An election tribunal comprising Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices on an election petition of Qaisera Elahi challenging the victory of Chaudhry Salik Hussain from NA-64, Gujrat.

The petitioner claimed that the election commission had issued an unlawful notification of the respondent’s victory.

Ms Elahi said according to Form 45, she was declared a successful candidate, while the election commission declared the victory of Hussain as per Form 47.

Alleging rigging in the election process, she asked the tribunal to declare the notification of the respondent’s victory issued by the election commission null and void.

The tribunal sought replies from the ECP and the returned candidate within a week.

PML-Q leader and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Salik Hussain won the Feb 8 election by securing 105,205 votes. Petitioner Qaisera Elahi, the wife of former chief minister Parvez Elahi, stood runner-up with 80,946 votes.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024