PESHAWAR, March 20: Senior doctors in the government hospitals do not intend to resign as members of the joint action committee are trying to pressurise the provincial government to lift the ban on their private practice.

These views were expressed by senior doctors of the Khyber Teaching Hospital when contacted by Dawn here on Wednesday.

Requesting anonymity, they said all the doctors knew that if they resigned the government would initiate an inquiry into the tax evasion of their past earnings through private practice.

They opined that senior registerers in the KTH had filled the vacuum of those professors who did not opt for institutional- based practice (IBP) as they were equally qualified to serve the humanity.

They pointed out that the number of patients was increasing day by day in IBP as on Tuesday about 250 were examined by the doctors in the KTH. Except one senior registerer of orthopaedic ward, Khurshid Ali, who did not opt for the IBP, all the other senior doctors sit in their office at the KTH after 0300pm, they added.

The senior doctors, they blamed, were also trying to involve students of the Khyber Medical College (KMC) for their vested interest. “The teaching staff of the KMC are instigating their students to stage protest demonstrations against the ban on private practice of the government-employed doctors,” they added.

They said the joint action committee and professors were also unhappy with the government decision of preparing annual confidential report (ACR) of senior registerers by the hospital administration.

They opined that the current non-cooperative attitude by some of the senior doctors would be soon ended as the IBP was in its initial stage and after some time the doctors would realise the benefits the new system.

Commenting on the resignations issue, chairman of the doctors’ joint action committee, Omar Ayub, claimed that it was not a verbal threat. “I have separate resignations of 153 doctors including district professors, associate professors, assistant professors and senior registerers,” he said.

“But the doors are still open for negotiation with the government to find a solution to end the doctor-government standoff. If the dialogue failed than we will hand in the resignations after consulting the lawyers,” he maintained.

Meanwhile, the central president and general secretary of Pakistan Medical Association, Dr Yasmin Rashid and Sher Shah Syed in a meeting of the association held here recently expressed grave concern over the ban on private practice of government-employed doctors and asked the NWFP government to review its decision.