LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has suspended the medical licences and registrations of 15 doctors for six months, after its Disciplinary Committee found them responsible for disrupting patient care, shutting down hospital wards and emergency services, and blocking roads.
According to an official statement issued on Tuesday, the committee reached its decision after concluding a formal hearing under Section 44 of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Act, 2022. The case was taken up on references received from the Government of Punjab.
Because a valid PMDC licence is required to practise medicine in Pakistan, the decision effectively removes the 15 doctors from clinical work for the duration of the penalty.
The statement identified the doctors as Dr. Arif Aziz, Dr. Shoaib Niazi, Dr. Salman Haseeb, Dr. Fakhar Munir Sial, Dr. Nadeem Saqib, Dr. Wajid Ali, Dr. Aamir Bashir, Dr. Asjad Salman, Dr. Arsalan Raza, Dr. Suleman Ghafoor, Dr. Osama bin Saeed, Dr. Ahmed Yar, Dr. Kashif Saeed, Dr. Hamid Arshad and Dr. Haseeb-ur-Rehman.
Before taking action, the council said it sought written responses from each doctor and gave them an opportunity to present their individual explanations. The penalty was imposed only after the allegations were substantiated, the statement said.
The charges listed by the council went well beyond participation in a protest. They included obstructing patient care, inciting others to halt medical treatment, blocking roads, interfering with treatment, shutting down wards and emergency services, and ejecting patients and their attendants from hospitals.
The doctors were also accused of issuing inappropriate statements on social media.
The PMDC’s penalty is lighter than what the provincial health authorities had asked for. According to the statement, the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department had recommended suspending the doctors’ services, cancelling their postgraduate training and permanently revoking their medical licences.
The council chose a six-month suspension instead. The statement added, however, that proceedings have also been initiated against the doctors under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act, 2006, alongside the suspension of their services and the cancellation of their postgraduate training.
Young doctors in particular, the loss of a postgraduate training slot can set a career back by years, making the combined administrative and regulatory action one of consequence well beyond the six-month licence suspension.
The statement framed the case as a question of medical ethics rather than labour relations. It said doctors are expected to uphold the highest standards of service in line with the medical oath and their professional obligations.
Going on strike, disrupting emergency services, shutting outpatient departments (OPDs) or obstructing national immunisation programmes, it said, is fundamentally at odds with the core principles of the profession and amounts to a grave betrayal of public trust.
The council stressed that under the code of ethics, patient welfare must always come before personal grievances or collective protests. Doctors who abandon their duties, it added, not only breach legal obligations but also erode the trust on which the dignity of the profession rests.
“Such conduct is neither expected from, nor can it be tolerated in, those entrusted with the lives and well-being of the community,” the statement said.
Punjab’s public hospitals are the first and often only option for low-income families, and Lahore’s largest government hospitals routinely handle patients referred from across the province. When OPDs or emergency departments close during protests, the burden falls hardest on patients who cannot afford private care.
The ruling also signals that the national regulator is prepared to treat protest-related disruption of care as professional misconduct, not merely an administrative matter for employers. Doctors can review their own licensing obligations in our earlier report on PMDC registration renewals.
The official statement did not include the explanations submitted by the doctors, and none of the 15 doctors’ responses to the decision were part of the release. The Lahore Times will update this report if the doctors or their representatives respond.
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