Punjab Information and Culture Minister Azma Bukhari said medical staff in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were protesting and observing strikes while Sohail Afridi was touring Lahore with his cabinet. She said young doctors in Dera Ismail Khan were on strike for their demands, while the Medical Store Association’s strike was also continuing in KP. Patients and their attendants at government hospitals across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were being forced to wander from pillar to post, she added.

Azma Bukhari said employees of Gomal University were also continuing their protest, adding that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had effectively been without responsible administration for two days. Doctors, medical store operators and teachers were observing strikes across the province, she said. The provincial information minister said that if Sohail Afridi chose to sit on a footpath at Lakshmi Chowk, it was described as a conspiracy against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Sohail Afridi and his cabinet have seen Lahore’s development; they should now go and check on their own province,” she said. Azma Bukhari said incompetence, inefficiency and corruption in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were loudly indicating that the province was at the mercy of thieves and looters. She alleged that the provincial chief minister was more concerned about a prisoner at Adiala Jail than about his own people.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)