LAHORE, March 1: The negotiations between the young doctors and the provincial health authorities have once again “come to a halt” as the government has reinstated 71 medical officers and women medical officers only on the condition of deducting their two-month salary as a punishment.

The Young Doctors Association, Punjab has rejected the decision of reinstating young doctors “without pay” and says it a clear-cut violation of the agreement they had reached with the government representatives.

More than 350 young doctors including MOs, WMOs, Postgraduate Trainees and House Officers of various health facilities were either suspended from service or awarded certain other departmental punishments by the authorities for hunger strike.

The health department reinstated 71 MOs and WMOs and issued a notification on Friday. A majority of those reinstated are activists or office-bearers of the YDA Punjab.

YDA Media Secretary Dr Khurram Shahzad said the health bureaucracy had hoodwinked them by setting a ‘controversial’ condition. He claimed that according to an agreement reached between the YDA leaders and a committee headed by Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, the doctors would be reinstated from the date of their termination or suspension. And there was no condition of deduction of two-month salaries, he said.

“We have decided not to receive orders of reinstatement till implementation of the committee’s recommendations in letter and spirit,” Dr Khurram said.

Answering a question, he said the PG trainees and the HOs were suspended by the heads of the teaching hospitals and the process of reinstating them by the authorities at the institution level was under process.

He said three major demands of the young doctors on strike were discussed during the meetings of the committee formed by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Feb 18. Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique, the health secretary, King Edward Medical College University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Faisal Masood, Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Dr Mehmood Shaukat and representatives of the YDA Punjab were part of the committee.

He said the committee members had reached a consensus that in the first phase the health department would withdraw all actions it had taken against the young doctors. The issue of provision of free medicines and diagnostic facilities would be addressed in the second phase after which the matter of young doctors facing criminal proceedings in the wake of Gujranwala’s incident would be resolved, he said.

“We will not hold talks with the authorities until the withdrawal of deduction of salaries of the reinstated doctors,” he warned.

Health Secretary Arif Nadeem said the YDA claim about absence of condition of salaries’ deduction was wrong. He told Dawn that the health department had deducted the salaries of the (reinstated) doctors in accordance with the recommendations of the committee.

He said these doctors were found absent from their duties and the heads of the medical institutions had proposed action against them. He said all show-cause notices and other departmental actions had been withdrawn against the reinstated MOs and WMOs.

General Cadre Doctors Association Punjab President Dr Masood Sheikh, who had attended two of the meetings of the committee, said the health authorities and heads of some teaching hospitals had strongly opposed the idea of reinstating the guilty doctors without teaching them a ‘lesson’.

He said the senior doctors claimed that they had been facing serious threats by their young colleagues during strike and they (young doctors) should be given some departmental punishment to prevent such activities in future.