KP doctors’ council condemns detention of PMA president

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Doctors Council and other doctors on Sunday condemned the police for detaining president of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon in the Lady Reading Hospital and keeping him in illegal confinement.

Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon told reporters that he had gone to LRH for his personal work and came across the journalists while leaving the hospital.

"Since I have good relations with the journalist community, some stopped me wanted me to give them my assessment about the doctors' strike and its repercussions for the patients," said the PMA president, adding that another reporter of a private television channel then approached him and requested to talk to them as well.

"And when I finished my talk to the TV channel and started leaving the hospital, a policeman approached me and asked me to show him my national identity card. I showed and he asked me to go with him. Then other policemen came and they took me into custody without any reason and then held me in an underground dark and dirty room for five hours," recalled Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon. He said that in the meantime, three senior police officers of DSP rank came and asked him why he had come to the hospital.

"They accused me of instigating the doctors to suspend services. This is so funny; can I do it alone? The doctors had already been on strike and the government has no power to resume services," Dr Haroon said. He alleged that the police used to take his pictures and kept him under constant harassment for no obvious reasons.

"I am a peaceful man and suffered a lot during my long struggle for the rights of doctors and patients in the province. I have been in jails several times and can't be stopped from my peaceful efforts through such acts," he said.

Dr Haroon said he then informed other doctors in LRH and they came for his rescue to get him released from the police. He appealed to the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court and provincial police chief to take note of his illegal detention and punish those behind it.