My grandfather and my father after him are both graduates of KEMU . The day I graduated; my father who is a respectable medical consultant, sat down with, he looked me in the eyes and said:
"Son! there is no future for you here, I asked you to go to LUMS, but u didn't, you wanted to become a doctor... Now leave this country, there is no good living for doctors here."
I wasn't naive. I knew he was right. But with almost all of my friends I decided to stay. i didn't want to leave my parents. I enrolled in a post graduate traing program of surgery and started working.I have worked for 12 months. My duty hours were 110 hours per week and increased to 150 hours every 3rd week (there are a total of 168 hours in one week). In some weeks I barely even saw my mother of whom I have alot of affection. But no matter what, I believed in my leader's vision, i believed in Imran Khan's Pakistan, not the Pakistan i was faced with every day but the one I wanted to create. I have worked diligently all my life, when I was green i used to count how many lives I had directly saved. I reached 211 after which it became futile to even count. Directly I have saved the lives of more people than most of you even know.
Till last year I was paid an exact ammount of Rs. 22340 per month. That is exactly Rs. 50 for every hour of duty, but it was al right because my dad is rich, i don't want much for anything. My pocket money is 4 times my pay. But taking money from your father is humiliating . especially after all the work i put in. I cant marry as i cant support a wife, i cant even afford my car's petrol for going and coming from my hospital, if my father doesn't give me pocket money. Last year we striked for better pays. It was something that we were forced to do. Every one does not have a consultalnt for a father. Some doctors worked 2 jobs. Can u imagine working 2 jobs when one of them is 440 hours a month. You cant. Its inhuman. Anyways, after the Govt. reaction last year (they fired me along with 4400 other doctors) I had a change of heart. Frankly this is what i thought.. 'to hell with pakistan and its people'. I was bitter and i was wrong but the govt. wasn't blame less . In the end the pay was incrased by 15000. As of last month my exact pay after taxes is 42010. Around Rs. 100 per hour.
Its not enough but its ok. We can manage to live on it but we still have no defined duty hours. Would u belive that more than 50 percent doctors work for free? it is called honorary job. We have to complete training years and we work for free. We have no promoton system, out of total of 34k doctors of punjab only 200 can hope to go from grade 17 to 20. Most will never get a promotion. This is called a service structure??
This year we have striked again, we wore black bands, demonstrated peacefully all year, 4 meetings were held and on all 4 meetings govt. representatives made promises which they subsequently broke. After the last and 5th broken promise we striked. According to PMDC rules sub section 2 a and b: "We are not slaves". We dont have to work if we dont want to. How can anyone force a human to work, thats only possible in slavery. The govt can go ahead and hire doctors who are willing to work in such conditions , good luck finding em . . but my heart is broken. I applied for training in america, after looking at my achedemic record and passing 3 international exams with 99 percentlile i applied for a visa. In 3 days i got my h1b work visa frm the american embassy in islamabad as i was a doctor. 2 weeks ago i was offered a job at the kingsbrook medical centre newyork. My initaial pay is more than most industrialists make in a month. My flight is in 17 days. I dont plan to come back. I love pakistan. But this pakistan, shehbaz sharif's pakistan doesn't deserve me. Out of my class of 310, 159 were ladies and married and did not practaice medicine. 23 lady doctors are working, 90 percent of the male ones have all immigrated. I was there at minar e pakistan with 20 plus friends. 19 including me are never coming back. Shehbaz shareef bhai you won!!
