PESHAWAR: Doctors here have rejected the biometric system and independent monitoring unit (IMU) introduced by the health department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to monitor the presence and performance of the health employees in different hospitals.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, Doctors Coordination Council, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, representatives led by Dr Mohammad Rizwan, Dr Alamgir, Dr Aamir and Dr Qazi Amjad asked the government to accept the doctors’ demand concerning provision of proper service structure to them till April 23 otherwise they would launch a province-wide protest campaign.

Describing the new decision as against the constitution, they referred to the government rules and said that officers of grade-17 and above were not bound to mark presence in the register and thus they considered the biometric system ‘illegal’.

Demand service structure, threaten strike from 23rd

Dr Rizwan said that the government had promised to take all the stakeholders into confidence regarding the Health Act, but it failed to do so. He said that they were doing their routine duties and had been unable to obey any fresh orders.

“Many of the doctors have already been doing prolonged duties and they can’t follow the new biometric system and thus this policy will be ineffective,” he said and added that it was duty of the government to keep coordination with the doctors’ organisations in this regard.

He threatened that if the government did not accept the doctors’ demand within a week they would be left with no other option but to start protest demonstrations and boycott of their duties in the province.

The government, he said, had promised to accept their longstanding demand regarding provision of service structure, but it was yet to fulfil its commitment.

Dr Rizwan said that the health care commission of the provincial government was against the interests of the doctors’ community and it was tantamount to depriving them of their livelihood.

He claimed that the people framing policies were in fact unaware of the duty hours and problems being faced by the doctors.

He said that the doctors had been demanding a proper service structure for the past many years, but successive governments did not bother to consider their demand, causing serious unrest among them. Referring to security threats to people belonging to different walks of life in the province, the doctor said that no one’s life or property was secure and the citizens were passing through a difficult time due to terrorism.

He said that it was the duty of the state to ensue protection to the life and property of the people.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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