PESHAWAR/Kohat: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) has come down hard on the provincial government for “failing to ensure the safety of doctors” and held it responsible for the murder of Dr Mahwish by an attendant in Kohat. It also resented the “growing insecurity” at public hospitals across the province.

Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, YDA provincial president Dr Asfandyar Baitani said Dr Mahwish would not have been killed had basic medical facilities been available at Kohat hospital.

He said the government had “completely failed” to provide protection to doctors and blamed flawed provincial policies for repeated violent incidents involving healthcare professionals.

Accompanied by YDA cabinet members and other doctors, Dr Baitani said that for the last 12 years, the PTI-led provincial government was busy formulating policies, with public hospitals lacking basic facilities.

Urges govt to ensure medics’ protection

He said patients were suffering due to the lack of resources, while attendants, frustrated by delayed and poor services, often turned violent against doctors.

Referring to the murder of a woman doctor in Kohat, the YDA leader said the absence of facilities forced Dr Mahwish to ask a patient’s relatives to remain calm, as several hours passed before treatment was provided.

He alleged that the same relatives later shot Dr Mahwish outside the hospital. Dr Baitani said the provincial leadership focused on raids and photo opportunities instead of meaningful reforms.

He claimed that despite repeated protests and news conferences, the government had failed to provide basic infrastructure to hospitals across the province.

The YDA leader said the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, had a shortage of beds and unused blocks, but still no serious administrative action was taken by authorities.

He also said despite the passage of laws for the doctors’ protection, their enforcement was missing.

Dr Baitani accused the chief minister of avoiding action against influential leaders, including MTI policy board head Dr Nausherwan Burki, over “corruption and misuse of funds”.

He warned that if the government failed to meet their demands, protests and sit-ins would be staged outside the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar and Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. He also said the provincial government must be held fully responsible for the killing of doctors in the province.

The YDA demanded the immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of those responsible for the killing of Dr Mahwish and called for concrete measures to ensure the safety of doctors in all public hospitals.

SECURITY ENHANCED: The administration has deployed additional security personnel and enhanced safety measures at the KDA divisional headquarters hospital in Kohat after a nationwide outcry over the murder of a woman doctor.

Commissioner Syed Moatasim Billah Shah, accompanied by deputy commissioner Mohammad Nawaz Wazir and district police officer Shehbaz Elahi met with the hospital’s doctors in the presence of medical superintendent Tahir Ali Shahon Tuesday and addressed their security concerns.

The doctors demanded immediate legal action against the killer and his accomplices and stricter security measures for employees.

He said investigators had made “significant progress” in the murder case by collecting crucial evidence, while raids were ongoing to apprehend the suspected killer and accomplices.

“Those responsible for the murder of Dr Mahvesh will be brought to justice,” he said.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the Young Doctors Association Dr Hafeez said that the CCTV footages showed that the accused was asked by the woman doctor to leave the woman’s section before he made a phone call. Later, two people showed up outside the hospital, handed over a motorcycle to him and left.

The accused chased the rickshaw in which the doctor was going home, fired seven gunshots at her and fled. The doctor died on the spot.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2026