HYDERABAD, Jan 17: The Doctors Action Committee on Thursday threatened to stage protest demonstrations and hunger strikes and adopt other extreme measures if the government did not issue appointment letters to the doctors who had passed the test conducted by the National Testing Services (NTS) last year.

The committee leaders Dr Tahir Qureshi, Dr Aslam Rajput, Dr Shabnam, Dr Wahid Soomro and Dr Shabana said at a news conference at the press club that despite the fact that the number of vacant seats far exceeded the number of candidates who passed the test the Sindh government was still dilly dallying on the issue of appointment letters.

They said that the NTS, which had been appointed by the HEC, held tests on Nov 4, 2007 simultaneously at Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Nawabshah for filling vacant posts in the health department.

The chairman of the committee Dr Tahir Qureshi said that the bureaucracy preferred that instead of issuing them appointment letters they should be asked to appear in interviews as it would give them more room to manoeuvre and open the doors of corruption.

He failed to understand the rationale behind not issuing letters to passing candidates even when their number was far less than the vacant posts. As a matter of principle, the passing doctors should be issued letters without interviews, he stressed.

Mr Qureshi appealed to the Sindh governor, caretaker chief minister and health minister to consider the matter and ensure they received letters immediately.

He said that the NTS, a highly prestigious and reputable testing service, which conducted tests for award of internal and external scholarships, pre-admission tests for educational institutions and tests for appointment in different departments of the federal and provincial governments, displayed the test result on its website on Nov 11, 2007.

According to break-up of the result, 382 candidates appeared in the test for 704 vacant posts of nurses (BPS-16) and only 291 candidates got through, 4,547 doctors appeared in test for 1,605 vacant posts of medical officers (BPS-17) and 1,584 doctors passed while 358 candidates appeared in test for 615 vacant post of specialists (BPS-18) and of them only 296 candidates were declared pass.

The statistics clearly showed that the number of candidates who passed the test was far less than the number of posts lying vacant in the department, he said.

He said the former senior minister Syed Sardar Ahmed had submitted a summary to the chief minister suggesting the government to appoint the passing candidates without any interview.

But the government failed to issue any letter after dissolution of assemblies, he said, adding, that the caretaker health minister had also gave an assurance that the vacant posts of nurses, medical officers and specialists would be filled soon but no progress had been made on it so far.