Islamabad, 28 August 2021: Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) condemns the recent use of force by the police against a peaceful protest of doctors and medical students regarding National Licensing Exam (NLE) at Lahore. “The imposition of the National Licensing Exam by the Pakistan Medical Commission on local graduates is a mistrust of its own approved medical universities.”
President PIMA Punjab Dr Shabbir Ahmed, General Secretary Dr Iftikhar Burney and President PIMA Lahore Prof Muhammad Humayun said in a joint statement on Saturday that the use of force against the medical community is shameful as it risks its life in the Corona pandemic to treat citizens on the front line.
We strongly believe that the government should take all the stakeholders on board regarding any policy change. We hope that the concerned authorities would resort to dialogue with representative bodies of doctors and medical students rather than physical assault to amicably resolve this issue.
PIMA demanded the government to initiate a process of consultation with all stakeholders in the interest of public health and formulate a consensus strategy for medical reform to ensure better health of the people.
