SALEH Saeed, on behalf of the government of Punjab, in his letter has unloaded a plethora of statistics and claims of the Punjab government, claims which have been repeated ad nauseam for the last year and more.

This was a bureaucratic knee-jerk reaction to obfuscate the issue but it does not alter ground realities by a single hairbreadth. The health professionals in Punjab found the official position of the government of Punjab unacceptable and demanded the framing of a career structure in line with their needs and not the whims and fancies of the government.

They were forced to go on strike by the intransigent attitude of the government to achieve this objective, with the concomitant police action and the ‘medical martial law’.

This is the main issue under discussion and not some real or imaginary achievements of the government and the great benefits they have bestowed on health professionals and the health delivery system.

Dr RASHEED HASAN KHAN Lahore