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Offline fizza bano

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Pakistan Medical Association staged demonstration
« on: June 13, 2010, 06:37:21 AM »
Pakistan Medical Association staged  demonstration
Karachi:The office-bearers of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) staged a demonstration, attended by a handful of doctors, to condemn the killing of their colleagues as a pathologist was gunned down on Saturday at around 8:30am.

An upset Dr Samrina Hashmi, former general secretary of the PMA, said that they could not blame the government as “we cannot gather people from our own community”.

Dr Farhat Moazzam, a professor of Bio-Medical ethics at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), said that instead of wasting time talking about the incident, they should take concrete steps to put an end to this violence. “I was told that the police know who the killers are, then why they are not arrested?” asked Dr Moazzam, adding that pressure will come from the civil society, which is being affected by these killings.

Speaking on the same lines was Dr Mirza Ali Haider, a senior member of the PMA, who said that the country was made on the basis of equality.

“My religion should not be a matter of concern to anyone and I have a right to ask

why minorities and religious sects in Karachi are discriminated and innocent people are being killed in the name of religion? Strangely, the basis on which the country was founded are the very same that are not being considered at all.”

He said that if the killings continued, the doctors will not pay tax and will go on a strike.

Secretary Health, Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi, said that their protest has been registered with the government and pleaded that the doctors should not go on a strike. “Do not let your anger affect your profession for something which should unite all of us,” added Zaidi.

President PMA Dr Idrees Adhi pointed out that killing of Shia doctors had been going on from 2000 till 2003, and said that the doctors should not go on a strike as the people who will suffer the most are the patients and general public of the city.

Talking about the general apathy among the people in general and law enforcers in particular, he said that they do not react unless something major happens.

It is pertinent to mention here that so far five doctors have been killed in the city with no clue of the killers. The doctors say that there is a clear involvement of a banned outfit, which is contrary to what the police officials investigating the matter say.

Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Wasim Ahmed had claimed in a meeting with the doctors at the PMA that he knew the culprits, to which Dr Samrina Hashmi says that they will believe it when they are arrested and punished accordingly.The news