KARACHI: The issuance of warrants for the arrest of over 260 healthcare professionals, including doctors, by the returning officer of a Sindh Assembly constituency in Karachi was widely condemned by their representative bodies on Friday.

PS-110 RO Muhammad Hayat, who is the chief executive officer of the Cantonment Board Karachi, had on Thursday issued arrest warrants against 266 health employees under Section-54(1) of Elections Act,2017 over their failure in responding to official calls for the conduct of the general elections. He had directed the SSP-South to arrest and produce them before him on Friday.

However, Dr Faisal Javed of the Young Doctors` Association told Dawn that `no place has been raided yet but the doctors [associated with the health department] have started receiving these warrants`.

He added that the matter had been taken up with the health minister and the chief minister. Healthcare providers were already engaged with medical emergency duties in the province, he added.

`In this situation, how could they perform election duties? One fails to understand why the staff of other departments such as the railway and the civil engineering wasn`t cho-sen for the election duties,` Dr Javed reasoned.

He said most of the doctors were associated with the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, which is already facing staff shortage. `If they were engaged with election duties, who would serve the patients,` he asked.

According to health department sources, the department had approached the secretary of the services, general administration and coordination department, in writing, requesting him to contact the Provincial Election Commissioner to exclude the names of all the employees of the health department from the general elections as `the health department couldn`t be in a position to relieve them due to existing medical emergencies`.

`Health department is dealing with health service delivery and due to many viral infectious diseases spread all over the province, the officers/officials are engaged to monitor the field health facilities to cope with the emergency. Therefore, the health department cannot perform its function in case of deployment of employees in election duties,` says a health department letter dated Jan 5.

Health Minister Dr Saad Khalid Niaz told journalists that the department had raised the matter through two letters with the Election Commission of Pakistan.

`Nowhere in the world the staff associated with the delivery of essential services are assigned elec-tion duties,` he said, adding that the department was already working with 45 to 60 per cent staff strength.

He warned that the country wouldn`t be able to cope with any medical emergency in election days, if health staff were assigned election duties.

YDA warns of protest The YDA in a press statement has warned of protests, if the arrest warrants were not immediately withdrawn.

`This unprecedented move is highly condemnable as it puts our dedicated medical professionals at risk of legal action for fulfilling their primary duty of saving lives.

The YDA stands in solidarity with our doctors who have been unfairly targeted, jeopardizing the availabil-ity of essential medical services during this critical period,` says the statement.

`If our demands are not met promptly, the YDA warns that we will be compelled to conduct a press conference and initiate peaceful protests to safeguard the rights and well-being of our dedicated doctors,` it adds.

Extending their support, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has also demanded immediate cancellation of the arrest warrants, describing it as `unjust and unreasonable`.

`We urge authorities to avoid assigning election duties to healthcare providers. We are extremely concerned about the impact this could have on the already strained healthcare system in Sindh,` Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro representing the association said.