RAHIM YAR KHAN: A sweeper allegedly tried to rape a woman medical officer in the emergency ward of the Shaikh Zayed Medical College and Hospital (SZMC&H) on Wednesday.

Doctors said their colleague was alone in a room when the suspect tried to overpower her. She cried to alert the security guards around and succeeded to save herself. Guards held the suspect and handed him over to the police.

Later, Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) activists protested at the incident and stopped working.

YDA President Dr Amjad and Dr Shabbir Warraich led their colleagues and gathered outside the principal office. They chanted slogans against the hospital administration for their failure to provide safety to doctors.

Principal Prof Dr Mubarak Ali Chaudhry initially left his office to see the protesters and went to the paeds ward. Protesting doctors followed him. Doctors demanded security for doctors on the SZMC&H premises. They complained about the rude behavior of security guards and other employees with doctors.

On Dr Chaudhry’s assurance that their issues would be resolved, doctors resumed their duties.

Police spokesperson Zeeshan Randhawa told Dawn that a first information report was registered against the accused, a sweeper of a private sanitation company.

The principal, however, denied the occurrence of any incident of rape attempt.

SZMC&H focal person Rana Ilyas Ahmed told Dawn some YDA doctors were politicizing this issue despite the arrest of the accused.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2018