ISLAMABAD: Doctors at Pims on Monday said they will go on strike if the hospital is not separated from the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University.

Addressing a press conference, Chairman Doctors Association Dr Asfandyar Khan said the hospital`s Out Patient Department (OPD) will be closed from August 22.

The hospital was upgraded to a medical university in 2013 during the previous PPP government via a bill, making Pims an autonomous organisation.

Dr Asfandyar said Pims employees were suffering because of this autonomy.

`Government employees are allowed to be allotted a plot by the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation, which is not considering us as Pims is now autonomous,` he said.

He said the air-conditioning plant has been out of order and that efforts were being made to make the hospital a private one.

However, Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said he will not allow a strike in the hospital as doctors were bound by the Hippocratic Oath to ensure their patients are treated. He said him and his colleagues will work in the OPD if doctors went on strike.

`The university will be moved to another location soon. The prime minister has constituted a committee headed by Khawaja Zaheer, special assistant to the PM, to look into the head issue,` he said.

He added that doctors` and staff salaries were increased on Monday and that it was expected they will call off the strike.