PESHAWAR, Jan 18: Unemployed Doctors Forum has asked the government to regularize the services of contract doctors and end the prevalent unrest among them.

The demand was made at a meeting of Unemployed Doctors Forum (UDF), held here recently with Dr Shahbaz Mohmand in the chair.

It said the NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had promised with the contract doctors that their services would be regularised but no practical step had been taken in this regard.

It said that some 1,500 doctors working on contract in the province performed their duties at the BHUs, RHCs and dispensaries in far-off stations, but they drew no facilities as did the permanent ones.

Moreover, five per cent amount was deducted from their basic salaries in the name of maintenance fund, whereas no repair work was carried out. The big problem faced by the contract doctors was that they were also not eligible to appear in the post-graduate level examinations.—Ashfaq Yusufzai