Doctors should now carry AK-47 instead of stethoscopes

PESHAWAR: The doctor community of public and private sectors have taken strong notice of the kidnapping of senior physician Prof Dr Amjad Taqweem and called a strike in all hospitals of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for Friday(today) and vowed to continue the protest till safe recovery of the doctor. Prof Dr Amjad Taqweem was an in-charge of medical ‘C’ unit in the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and was kidnapped from Phase-VII in Hayatabad on Tuesday evening.It sent a wave of shock and concern among the already worried doctor fraternity that held the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government responsible for the worsening security of the militancy-plagued province. Doctors who are considered as messiahs in our society may now have to look after their own security and carry guns as government in response to doctors demand for security has announced issuance of gun licenses to the doctors instead. In response to this one of the doctors said that is this why he studied all his life to enter a healthcare profession to carry guns for his own security? The doctors in KPK have realized that despite deteriorating law and order situation, they have been serving the ailing humanity in each and every corner of the province and paying taxes to the government but the government is unable to provide something as basic as security in return. It is time to support each other rather than waiting for our suffer one by one. On expiry of 72 hours deadline that the doctors had set for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for safe recovery of the kidnapped physician, the doctors on Thursday decided to suspend health delivery services across the province. He said the management of two private hospitals, Rahman Medical Institute (RMI) and Northwest General Hospital (NGH), announced to close their hospitals in protest against the kidnapping of Dr Amjad Taqweem. Except emergency services, the doctors boycotted out-patient departments (OPD), operation theatres, ward rounds, and teaching classes in both hospitals of the provincial metropolis.All organisations of the doctors joined hands and vowed to collectively struggle for safe recovery of Prof Dr Amjad Taqweem and for the rights of other members of medical community. They complained that dozens of doctors had been kidnapped from Peshawar and other parts of the province during the past several months and all of them were set free after their families paid ransom.