LAHORE: Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said calling army doctors at public hospitals is an admission of failure by the Shahbaz Sharif government while Governor Latif Khosa has advised the chief minister to ‘shun his ego’ and hold direct talks with young medics.

Speaking at a reception given by PML-Q parliamentary leader Chaudhry Zaheeruddin at a local hotel on Monday, Mr Elahi said Shahbaz was responsible for administrative failure and economic mess in the province.

He said irony of the matter was that patients were dying, doctors were languishing in jails and the chief minister was spending days in his tent office and nights in Murree. He said Shahbaz had closed all mega projects, including the mass transit rail project launched by the PML-Q government, which was unfortunate.

The former chief minister said most parts of the Ring Road were completed in his tenure while the bridges the Shahbaz government was constructing in ‘record time’ were also collapsing in record time.

He said the PML-Q had asked the president and the prime minister to solve the issues of energy and unrest in Balochistan before the next elections.

Meanwhile, Governor Khosa, talking to a group of journalists at the Governor’s House on Monday, said Shahbaz should hold direct talks with young doctors and accept their just demands.

“Shahbazs should shun his ego and give respect to the doctors,” he said.

He said the Punjab government was facing such problems because Shahbaz had retained most of the portfolios. He pointed out there had been no full-fledged health minister in the province.

He said Shahbaz was also responsible for the worst law and order situation in the province.

PPP Punjab information secretary Raja Amir said Shahbaz was responsible for the deaths in hospitals.

Flanked by Usman Salim Malik and Mani Pehalwan, he told a news conference that had the Punjab government accepted the ‘just demands’ of doctors they would not have gone on strike.

He also condemned the attitude of the doctors.