KARACHI, Aug 9: The chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, said that the dismissal of doctors from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, at a time when people were dying of gastroenteritis and other diseases in the flood-hit areas, was an act of cruelty on the part of the government.

In a statement issued here on Thursday from Bilawal House, Ms Bhutto said that special medical teams should be immediately dispatched to the affected areas, including Dadu, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, and Thatta, otherwise the government would be held responsible for any possible outbreak of an epidemic.

Ms Bhutto said that it clearly indicated the anti-people policy of the government that instead of sending doctors to the devastated areas, it had terminated the services of around 48 doctors from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

She demanded of the government to immediately reinstate the health professionals and to regularise their services.—PPI