LAHORE: A faction of Punjab`s Young Doctors Association (YDA) had the gall to `storm` the office of the King Edward Medical University vice chancellor for the second time in the last two days and allegedly intimidating him to have their demands fulfilled.

Led by Dr Shaharyar Khan Niazi, the medics allegedly turned more aggressive on Wednesday than they were a day earlier and asked the vice chancellor to `solvetheir issues before the next and final round which is expected in the days to come` On Tuesday, sources alleged, the group of doctors forcibly entered Prof Dr Faisal Masood`s office where a meeting was in progress and misbehaved with him and other senior faculty members.

They held Dr Masood and the YDA Punjab leadership responsible for the introduction of the Central Induction Policy (CIP) and demanded its withdrawal.

`Unlike a large number of young doctors who came to the VC`s office on Tuesday, around two dozen of them turned up on Wednesday but their attitude was more derogatory,` an official told Dawn. He further alleged that the medics even didn`t spare the vice chancellors oftwo other universities who were holding a meeting on the CIP.

University of Health Sciences VC Mohammad Aslam, a retired major general, and Fatima Jinnah Medical University VC Prof Dr Sardar Fakhar Imam were in a meeting with Dr Masood when the YDA activists entered the office without prior approval of or intimation to the KEMU admin, the official said.

The brazen-faced activists started shouting at the KEMU vice chancellor and hurled invectives saying he (Dr Masood) had extended support to the Punjab government as well as the health department in drafting the new policy for postgraduate trainees, alleged the official. They also asked the VC to discard the policyand induct students of the varsity for the postgraduate training programme according to the previous arrangement.

The KEMU VC, said the official, objected to the group`s mode of protest and asked the young doctors to re-visit him after taking appointment but they refused to budge.

After some time they left the office warning the VC that they would again visit him for a `final round` for the same purpose. Prof Masood insisted only merit-based induction would be made under the CIP, he added.

NEW SCHEME: The CIP has been introduced after doing a lot of work and deliberations to overcome `violation of merit` in accommodating the PG trainees, say officials. It is alleged that some YDAleaders would take money to have the students inducted in the postgraduate programmes at various teaching hospitals.

In the new scheme, the stakeholders including the YDA Punjab have agreed on a merit-based formula.

Responding to the issue, YDA Punjab President Dr Ajmal Chaudhry said the association and its senior leadership didn`t believe in misbehaving with senior teachers. He said the humiliation of Dr Faisal Masood was `an individual act of a faction of young doctors` and they had nothing to do with this mode of agitation.

`Everyone has a democratic right to protest but the sanctity of the faculty and the medical profession must be safeguarded at any cost,` he said.