Blasphemy case against colleague: Doctors threaten strike
GUJRAT: The local medical fraternity has warned if the blasphemy case registered against a senior doctor of a public hospital was not withdrawn in the next 48 hours, the medical services, except emergency wards, in all healthcare facilities in the district will be suspended.
The doctors also demanded that Rangers should be called in the city if police had failed to maintain law and order.
The warning was issued at an emergency meeting of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) local chapter held at the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Hospital on Monday. The meeting was presided over by PMA local president Dr Maqsood Zahid and participated by a large number of senior and young doctors.
It was held in connection with registration of a blasphemy case under Section 295-A of the PPC against a senior doctor of the hospital.
Dr Zahid told Dawn that it was unanimously decided in the meeting that if the case was not withdrawn within 48 hours, the doctors would go on a strike which might spread across the province as the medical fraternity was convinced that decision of a majority of the Ulema (clerics) in the district peace committee had not been followed.
He said though a majority of the clerics in the peace committee had not recommended registration of a case against the doctor, the district administration and police bowed down to the “pressure tactics of some miscreants” and booked the senior medic.
He warned if any untoward incident occurred against any doctor in the district, the deputy commissioner (DC) and district police officer (DPO) would be responsible for it.
The police and administration are under immense pressure from both sides — a sectarian outfit and the doctors community — after the registration of the case.
Two students of the hospital’s nursing school had accused the doctor of uttering blasphemous remarks during a Quran translation class.
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