From June to Dec 2012, six prominent senior specialists were kidnapped by unknown armed groups.
“I cannot treat your son; the doctors are on strike. Please don’t waste time and take him immediately to any private hospital,” a member of the paramedical staff of a government hospital told a man who had brought his injured son who was bleeding due to a bullet injury to the hospital.
This incident took place at the emergency gate of a government hospital in Quetta that was closed due to the doctor’s strike in November last year. The OPD and all emergency operation theatres were closed down and medical aid was denied to patients as doctors protested against the targeted killing and kidnapping of their colleagues for ransom. Even patients with bullets injuries and serious fractures, and women brought to gynaecology wards in serious condition were turned away.
From June to Dec 2012, six prominent senior specialists were kidnapped by unknown armed groups from Quetta, Mastung and Khuzdar. As a result, the doctors locked all government run hospitals across the province for several months. Later, they also shut down all private hospitals and clinics for an indefinite period to counter the allegation that the government-employed doctors were using the strike as an excuse to divert patients to their private practices.
The president Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Balochistan chapter, Dr Sultan Tareen who led the entire protest says that sense of insecurity due to targeted killings, kidnapping for ransom and disappearance of doctors forced the medical community to protest as the government failed to arrest kidnappers and recover the kidnapped doctors.
In the past three years more than 16 doctors have been targeted and killed in Quetta and other cities of the province while 20 to 25 doctors were kidnapped from Quetta, Khuzdar, Kalat and other towns of the province for ransom. Mutilated bodies of some of the missing doctors were recovered, while the government failed to find many others. “One of our senior doctors was killed even after payment of ransom,” Mr Tareen said.
None of the kidnapped doctor could be recovered by the police or other law enforcement agencies and had to pay huge ransoms for their release. Dr Tareen says that the former home minister is on record for stating that provincial ministers and personnel of law enforcement agencies were involved in this dirty business and later this allegation was proved when personnel of Frontier Corps conducted a raid at the office of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and caught three senior police officers red-handed, receiving ransom money for the release of a businessman who was abducted from Chagai for ransom and recovered from the lock-up of the CID Quetta office.
Despite kidnapping, targeted killings and attacks on the casualty ward of Civil Hospital and Bolan Medical College the government failed to provide any security to the doctors and that fear forced them to go on strike for an indefinite period. “We know people suffered a lot due to the prolonged strike but we had no other way to push through our demands regarding security,” he says.
When contacted, the provincial secretary health, Nasibullah Bazai says that security was the main cause behind the doctors’ strike in Balochistan. “Service structure, promotion and demand for increase in salary related issues were never the major cause behind the strike,” Mr Bazai said, adding that all doctors are given timely promotion as presently several doctors have been working in BPS-19 and 20. He admitted that “some doctors were killed by armed groups and some others were kidnapped by kidnappers for ransom and got release after payment of ransom.”
The health secretary says that the government held successful negotiations with the doctors and persuaded them to end their strike. “After the talks with the PMA Balochistan leadership and protesting doctors, we released the detained doctors, withdrew cases against them, deployed a heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel in and around the government hospitals to ensure the security of doctors during duty hours.” However, he says that the doctors running private hospitals and clinics should hire private guards.
He was of the view that doctors should never go on strike and should adopt other ways to get their legitimate demands accepted as their strikes directly affect the masses particularly the poor segment of society.