LAHORE: The police used water cannons to disperse the protesting young doctors on the Mall Road, leaving two of the protesters, including president of the Young Doctors Association Punjab, fainted.

The situation got tense and a clash started between police and the employees of the public hospitals when the latter, under the leadership of YDA Punjab President Dr Shoaib Niazi, moved from the Charing Cross to reach the CM Secretariat.

The YDA had announced on Thursday to move from the Charing Cross and stage a sit-in outside the CM Secretariat to intensify the agitation against the outsourcing of the public hospitals.

Following the announcement, the employees, including young doctors, nurses and paramedics, gathered in a large number after Friday Prayers and then marched towards the CM Secretariat.

YDA, health employees were trying to reach CM Secretariat

The police intensified security by making heavy deployment to engage the protesters at the Charing Cross and suggested to them to continue their agitation on the same venue. However, the YDA president rejected the offer of the police and marched towards the CM Secretariat as per the given call.

A clash took place between the two sides when the employees moved forward, according to the eyewitnesses. They said the police reportedly thrashed some of the young medics, including the YDA Punjab president, and then used the water cannon to disperse them.

A video clip of the incident showed Dr Shoaib Niazi fainted on the Mall Road while the police high-ups declared it a ‘drama,’ saying the police used water cannons with low water pressure just to push the protesters back. The employees alleged that two of the protesters fainted as the police used adulterated water while the police strongly denied the allegations, saying the demonstrators were trying to get sympathies to divert the attention.

Talking to the media, the YDA president announced to intensify the protest by observing strikes at the OPDs of the hospitals. The police alleged that the YDA was using the women employees as ‘shield’ to violate the earlier agreement according to which the Charing Cross was decided to be their protest venue.

There are reports that a group of the women employees managed to reach the Club Chowk by dodging the police and staged a sit-in there while the other employees had staged a sit-in outside the Alhamra building.

In the related development, the paramedics of the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) completely shut down the OPD and some other wards of the hospital for suspending two employees of the teaching hospital for supporting the protest against outsourcing the hospitals. Reportedly, they locked the rooms of the doctors at the OPD and pushed the patients outside the facility.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2025