Karachi: Punjabi female doctor facing discrimination, being forced to quit her job

A senior Punjabi female doctor of  Karachi’s major public hospital said that she has been harassed and facing discrimination for the past several months on gender and ethnic grounds.

The doctor is in charge of the gastroenterology and hepatology ward at the hospital and said that she is the only female doctor working in any public sector hospital in Pakistan who specializes in gastroenterology.

She accused the hospital that she was being forced to quit her job.

The local newspaper quoted the doctor as saying that she had been harassed and blackmailed for the past several months on the basis of her gender and race.

The doctor also showed several WhatsApp and Facebook messages sent, accusing her of being a “non-Sindhi” and “a draconian lady” who is not allowed to work in the hospital’s gastroenterology ward. She said she was also receiving threatening calls and text messages from unknown numbers to quit the job.

The publication reported her as saying, “First of all, I’m a Pakistani citizen who was born in Karachi. I have studied in this city and graduated from the Sindh Medical College. I even married a person who is Sindhi-speaking, but still, some people, including some staff members [of the hospital], are harassing me. They are doing negative propaganda against me, which has made me mentally disturbed,”

The doctor added, “I have filed several complaints with the relevant authorities against this harassment and blackmailing. but now I want to make my ordeal public and urge the high authorities to take notice of this hooliganism. They call me a Punjabi woman, hurl abuses at me, put baseless posts on Facebook and then send it to me and my colleagues on WhatsApp. This should end now.”