LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association Punjab which had emerged as a `formidable` body struggling for medics` better career prospects, has developed serious internal differences creating apprehensions it may collapse.

Setting a rare precedence of unity for the other medical associations, the YDA has given a tough time to the Punjab government during their last three years` struggle for service structure for the young medics.

`This unity was missing when it came to addressing internal differences which have now assumed alarming proportions, pushing the YDA in a blind alley,` a disappointed young doctor told Dawn on Tuesday.

Presently, he said, the YDA had split into many groups since the internal differences had become `serious` as the senior leadership failed to bring the younger lot to the dialogue table. Aggressive attitude of some of the YDA activists is said to be a major factor behind the situation.

He said that on Monday a face-offbetween the two main rival groups of the association was witnessed at the Mayo Hospital which could have turned ugly.

He said the row erupted when a group of YDA, backed by its `patron in chief` Dr Hamid Butt some days ago leveled serious allegations of corruption against two senior officebearers of the Mayo Hospital chapter of the association -Dr Shoib Niazi and Dr Inamullah Barki.

Following the allegations, YDA Secretary General Dr Tajammal Butt suspended membership of both Dr Niazi and Dr Barki instead of taking up the matter at the general council meeting of the association, he added. He said the administrative action by YDA Punjab against two senior office-bearers invited wrath of many young doctors of Mayo Hospital, Lahore.

This also triggered a heated debate on the issue among the YDA factions which echoed in social media as well, the young doctor said.

Though many neutral young doctorstried to mediate between the factions but to no avail, he added. He said the YDA group backed by Dr Shoaib Niazi was of the view that the allegations of corruption against the senior members of the association were baseless and were leveled just to settle personal score.

Some colleagues of Dr Niazi insisted that their rival group should have raised the matter at YDA general council meeting instead of defaming the two office-bearers publicly. As the YDA senior leadership did not intervene for mediation, the rival groups hurled threats of dire consequences ateachother.

On Sunday last, he said, both sides challenged each other to have a face-to-face `discussion` on the issue at Mayo Hospital, creating fears of a physical clash among the young medical community.

Dr Hamid Butt visited the hospital along with his colleagues on Monday night where the rival group members were also present. The situation remained tensed because of exchangeof hot words and even threats between the two sides, he said. However, some senior YDA leaders who were present there managed to disperse activists of rival groups, avoiding any untoward incident, he added.

Later, Dr Hamid Butt, in a text message to his colleagues alleged that some members of the rival group from Mayo Hospital pointed weapons at him and some other senior office-bearers, including YDA president Dr Ajmal Chaudhry, during the face-off.

The young doctor told Dawn the activists on both sides were now flexing muscles for the next round to `teach a lesson` to each other as no serious effort was being made to resolve the differences.

YDA senior of fice-bearer Dr Amir Bandesha said the matter was in the knowledge of the association. He said a meeting of the YDA general council had been called at Children`s Hospital on Wednesday (today) to take up the issue.

-Asif Chaudhry