LAHORE, March 15: The Punjab government's threatening behaviour with doctors, who are demanding their rights, is condemnable, says Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

Talking to a delegation of doctors, who called on him on Tuesday, he called upon the chief minister to redress the doctors' grievances bearing in mind that their majority enters the coveted profession after great hard work and financial stress borne by their families.

The PML-Q and conscientious people were with the doctors.

Instead of advancing his government's good work in the health sector, Elahi insisted, the incompetent rulers had pushed the doctors to come out on roads. Any foul move against doctors would force the PML-Q and other parties to join the doctors on roads.

The former chief minister reminded the visiting doctors of steps taken for their betterment during his government including substantive increase in doctors' salaries and other benefits. He said that his government had brought about a healthy environment in Punjab's health sector and doctors were found willingly going to remote areas to serve the masses.

He was informed by the doctors that presently many of their colleagues were being paid even less than the salaries his government had approved.

He said that due to attractive packages and other offerings, there was virtually a zero per cent brain drain of doctors in Punjab during his government while it was the other way round under the present set-up. He said that doctors had been humiliated and tortured by the present Punjab government.

He condemned the government for putting doctors in jails and for booking them in false murder cases. Thousands of doctors in Punjab were queuing up for overseas jobs due to this mishandling and by now 7,000 doctors had already migrated to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he added.

Doctors left in the province were either out on the roads in protest or treating patients under a constant fear of being booked for murder in case of any mishap, he said.

APML: The All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) has accused the Punjab government of spending millions of rupees on anti-doctors media campaign.

“The PML-N government is spending millions of rupees from the exchequer against the doctors but is making no serious effort to address their grievances,” APML leader Javed Badar said.

He said it was not a healthy approach to launch a smear campaign against the doctors. “If the government thinks that some of doctors' demands are not genuine, it should hold talks with them. The doctors are educated community and the government should not force them to resort to observing strikes,” he said.

Badar asked the chief minister to immediately stop the anti-doctors campaign in the national press and spend that money on the welfare of the people.