PESHAWAR, March 9: The ban on private practice of government doctors was challenged in the Peshawar High Court on Saturday.

A writ petition, filed by office-bearers of the Association of the Ideological Force of Pakistan, termed the restriction unconstitutional and illegal.

The petitioners prayed to the court for declaring the provincial government’s notification of Feb 12, 2002— through which the Institutional Based Practice was introduced and private practice was banned— as illegal and against the law.

The office-bearers claimed that the association wanted to defend fundamental rights of citizens, as provided in the Constitution, and to assist the government for the observance of the doctrine of the due process of law.  

It was also stated that in consequence of the impugned notification the public had been deprived of the option of getting treatment at private clinics other than the government hospitals.

The petitioners contended that by imposing the ban only in the NWFP, the province had been discriminated as no such restriction had been imposed in other provinces of the country.

Respondents in the petition are NWFP government, Federation of Pakistan and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.