After a recent move by Middle-East countries, Pakistani doctors practicing in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain have been banned from practicing there on the note that the doctors lacked structured training programme. Following the failure, the doctors in Pakistan are absolutely jobless and now Pakistan has once again made itself an object of derision with its attempt to carry the practices in India.
The citizens of Pakistan are battling a crisis in medical services triggered by an acute shortage of life-saving drugs and lack of properly qualified doctors. With how Pakistan’s medical degrees have been de-recognised by several countries, Pakistani doctors seem to be found wanting when it comes to matching requisite standards of qualification.
As per a recent report by Dawn, a Pakistani daily, Pakistani doctors are looking for Indian visas so that they can treat patients in Jammu & Kashmir. Vice-Chancellor of University of Health Sciences (UHS) Prof Dr Javed Akram, said, “I met the Indian High Commission’s First Secretary (Economics and Commerce), Ashish Sharma and handed him an application to issue visas to 21 doctors who want to go to occupied Kashmir so that medical treatment would be provided to Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, etc, who have been deprived of medical facilities due to over a month-long curfew in the occupied valley.”
The UHS and Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM) had earlier signed a declaration stating that a multidisciplinary team of doctors would be sent to Jammu & Kashmir to provide medical treatment to those living in the state. Dr Javed Akram went on to the extent of claiming that he requested the Indian diplomat to take up the issue with the Government of India and allow the doctors to enter Jammu & Kashmir through the Line of Control (LoC). He added that if visas were not issued, they would try to force themselves into Jammu & Kashmir. Till date, it was only the Pakistani soldiers and terrorists who used to resort to infiltration but now even Pakistani doctors seem to be acting like cross border terrorists who openly extend infiltration threats.
What is more shameful on the part of Pakistani doctors is to show concern towards Jammu & Kashmir when Pakistani patients are struggling to survive in face of paucity of life saving drugs in the country. Recently it came to light Pakistan’s drug industry is in a bad shape. After Pakistan suspended bilateral trade with India, traders in the country were forced to stop importing medicines from India.
Pakistani hospitals soon started facing a severe shortage of life-saving medicines and ultimately the Pakistani patients had to suffer. Finally, Pakistan felt compelled and allowed bilateral trade in life-saving medicines with India. Earlier, the fragile state of Pakistan’s medical services and doctors got badly exposed when several countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE de-recognised Pakistani medical degrees, as a result of which thousands of Pakistani doctors were left jobless. This came as a big shock for Pakistan given that similar degrees from other South Asian nations like India and Bangladesh are accepted in Arab countries. The professionals from few other countries like Egypt and Sudan which were earlier British colonies and follow the British system of MD and MS are also accepted in Saudi Arabia.
