LAHORE, Nov 6: Doctors are being victimised by the Shahbaz Sharif government at the expense of masses, according to Dr Samia Amjad and Dr Faiza Asghar – opposition members in the Punjab Assembly.

Both doctor legislators showed their concern at a press conference here on Thursday.

According to them, doctors are protesting the government instead of facilitating the health sector because of murder cases against them.

Dr Amjad criticised the Punjab government for “doing nothing for the health sector in the last 10 months and the biggest example of this gross neglect is the absence of the Punjab health minister for an equal time”.

The Shahbaz government instead of seeking professional advice on the health sector from experts had given bureaucrats and incompetent advisers a lead role in the health issues of the province which was the root cause of the present sorry state of the province’s health affairs, said Dr Asghar.

The parliamentarian doctors cited the recent cancellation of cycle stand contracts in public hospitals where according to the government’s decree now hospital doctors have been made responsible for any theft occurring at these stands as one of the various anti health decisions taken by the Punjab government.

They praised the previous regime of Pervaiz Elahi for taking measures for the improvement of the health sector, also endorsed by the World Bank and World Health Organization.

They cited mobile rescue 1122 service, cardiac hospitals in Faisalabad, Multan and Wazirabad set up along with three medical colleges and a network of thousands of basic health units and rural health centres in the province as proof of improvement in health facilities.