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[Airbus Jr]

More than 200 fully-suited lawyers stormed a cardiac hospital in Lahore today

Doctors made of fun of the lawyers on video last night, sparking the attack

PM Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the incident and told Punjab authorities to deal with those involved with an 'iron hand'



At least three heart patients died on Wednesday after 200 lawyers stormed a Pakistani cardiac hospital and attacked doctors because they had ridiculed them.

'Three patients including an elderly woman died after doctors failed to provide them timely treatment and remained engaged in averting the assault,' Punjab provincial health minister Yasmeen Rashid said at a televised press conference in Lahore.

According to police, the lawyers started punching and kicking some doctors at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and beating them with sticks.

Officers said the mob damaged hospital equipment and prompted the families of some patients to move them to other hospitals.

Authorities said tension had been brewing between the city's lawyers and medics since last month, when one Lahore lawyer complained that doctors mistreated him when he took an ailing relative to the hospital. It was unclear what the alleged mistreatment involved.

The incident today was allegedly triggered by video clips some doctors had made ridiculing the lawyers.

Punjab information minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan who arrived at the hospital to mediate was also thrashed by angry lawyers.

'This was kind of a high-handedness which none of civilised societies can tolerate,' provincial law minister Raja Basharat said.

Private television channels showed live footage of the scuffles from the scene where some of the lawyers were also seen brandishing pistols.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who ordered an inquiry into the incident, directed Punjab provincial government to take stern action against all those involved in the attack.

'Several lawyers have been identified from the television footage and the government will deal with all those involved in the attack with an iron hand,' Basharat said.

 

[Nightrunner]

More than 200 fully-suited lawyers stormed a cardiac hospital in Lahore today

Doctors made of fun of the lawyers on video last night, sparking the attack

PM Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the incident and told Punjab authorities to deal with those involved with an 'iron hand'



At least three heart patients died on Wednesday after 200 lawyers stormed a Pakistani cardiac hospital and attacked doctors because they had ridiculed them.

'Three patients including an elderly woman died after doctors failed to provide them timely treatment and remained engaged in averting the assault,' Punjab provincial health minister Yasmeen Rashid said at a televised press conference in Lahore.

According to police, the lawyers started punching and kicking some doctors at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and beating them with sticks.

Officers said the mob damaged hospital equipment and prompted the families of some patients to move them to other hospitals.

Authorities said tension had been brewing between the city's lawyers and medics since last month, when one Lahore lawyer complained that doctors mistreated him when he took an ailing relative to the hospital. It was unclear what the alleged mistreatment involved.

The incident today was allegedly triggered by video clips some doctors had made ridiculing the lawyers.

Punjab information minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan who arrived at the hospital to mediate was also thrashed by angry lawyers.

'This was kind of a high-handedness which none of civilised societies can tolerate,' provincial law minister Raja Basharat said.

Private television channels showed live footage of the scuffles from the scene where some of the lawyers were also seen brandishing pistols.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who ordered an inquiry into the incident, directed Punjab provincial government to take stern action against all those involved in the attack.

'Several lawyers have been identified from the television footage and the government will deal with all those involved in the attack with an iron hand,' Basharat said.

The Hospital in question is the Punjab Institute of Cardiology. Probably the best cardiac institute though it does lack Electrophysiology docs and facilities compared to AFIC.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Further proof that high education in a given field does not make you a more intelligent or moral human being.

 

[Starfield]

Well what do you expect from animals in suits

And by that I don't mean it bc of their race but bc they are literally behaving like animals.

Being a lawyer running around in suits should indicate that you have some sort of intelligence but attacking doctors and preventing them from treating innocents?

Bury them in their shjtty suits I say

 

[Contica]

What is it about this region of the world?

 

[Nightrunner]

 

[Paltheos]

What in the blazes...?
Lawyers running around all dressed up beating up people?
Who the hell gathers up a posse of professionals to beat up other professionals? What's the culture of the region to permit this?

 

[Nightrunner]

What in the blazes...?
Lawyers running around all dressed up beating up people?
Who the hell gathers up a posse of professionals to beat up other professionals? What's the culture of the region to permit this?

This sort of stuff happens here all the time. People have been killed just because someone accused them of blasphemy (no evidence either). We the police get a lot of flak for this but no one's trying to address the culture causing this. Before this the Health Minister came to a Govt Teaching Hospital and had doctors beaten up then there was a whole strike that resulted in OPDs being shut down for a whole month or so. Lynch mobs, murders and such are very common in Pakistan mostly of the religious violence variety.

 

[synchronicity]

Further proof that high education in a given field does not make you a more intelligent or moral human being.

Intensive education in a particular field can often build a wall around your approach to learning and end up as a limiting factor rather than expansive one.

There are those who escape this trap, of course, but I've found them to be the minority.

 

[Paltheos]

This sort of stuff happens here all the time. People have been killed just because someone accused them of blasphemy (no evidence either). We the police get a lot of flak for this but no one's trying to address the culture causing this. Before this the Health Minister came to a Govt Teaching Hospital and had doctors beaten up then there was a whole strike that resulted in OPDs being shut down for a whole month or so. Lynch mobs, murders and such are very common in Pakistan mostly of the religious violence variety.

I just don't understand the myriad elements that go into producing a situation like this. Here in America we have police and laws and nasty consequences for attacking other citizens. Professionals... let alone lawyers, don't organize into an attack mob.

As a member of the police force (apparently), do you have any insights? What elements of the Pakistani culture contribute to this sort of behavior? And are you guys hamstrung in any way - Unable to do more to effectively carry out what you believe are your responsibilities?

 

[Nightrunner]

I just don't understand the myriad elements that go into producing a situation like this. Here in America we have police and laws and nasty consequences for attacking other citizens. Professionals... let alone lawyers, don't organize into an attack mob.

As a member of the police force (apparently), do you have any insights? What elements of the Pakistani culture contribute to this sort of behavior? And are you guys hamstrung in any way - Unable to do more to effectively carry out what you believe are your responsibilities?

Well this lawyer incident is isolated in terms of someone being from the apparently educated demographic being involved in this. Hospitals themselves have been attacked 3 times in the last year all within the province I'm stationed in rn. The reason these lawyers organized into attack mobs is because a doctor made fun of them on social media.
Now as far as the elements that lead to events like this there's

1. Lack of ethics (here lawyer/judge backroom deals are very common, as are judges/lawyers taking bribes)
2. Party/Affiliate/Brotherhood culture where people from the same political party/occupation take care of their own so a judge would in most cases go "easy" on these lawyers. Same w/ any other occupation eg doctors look out for each other. Sort of a Us vs Them mentality.
3. Lack of *decent* education beyond rote memorization, widespread illiteracy (not in this particular attack though). Seriously I've been to several trials and all you'll see are leading questions/badgering and the like. All the things you shouldn't do as a lawyer are the only thing most lawyers are good at here.
4. General frustration at living in what is essentially a failed state where you have to deal with things like loadshedding (where you have no electricity for a few hours, lower middle class and below peeps have it really bad and can't really do anything about it), a really poor economy, institutionalized corruption everywhere, lack of gov support for poor demographics
5. An established attitude of religion>everything which in turn leads to persecution of minorities and is responsible for the regular attacks on various minorities.
6. Poor healthcare unless you go to a private institute, poor performance of every govt so far (including this one) that has made the situation even worse. Even a book wouldn't be enough to cover this particular topic but a TL;DR is illiteracy, nepotism, corruption, poverty, frustration, ignorance and bigotry. Mob culture is still very common here.

As far as being hamstrung yes very much so. As an inspector if I arrest the *wrong* person who happens to know my superior officers I can be dismissed without compensation/pay and bam that's that. The Health Minister recently attacked a few doctors with his own private guards and none of them were punished so VIP culture/being untouchable is very much a thing here. Other than that lack of proper forensic procedures/protocols/good evidence record keeping a whole lotta other shit too that deserves its own book.
Generally speaking we have a few rules:
Someone's in the army ranked Capt or higher don't bother/arrest em unless ordered to do so (which they have their own people for so generally we don't go near em).
Session Judge or higher don't bother em.
Any Govt Officer Grade 19 or higher don't bother em.
To get guys like them you have to be either really high up or be ordered to do so.


Since I mentioned corruption it's only fair that I mention our own institute is pretty corrupt as well. There's plenty of corruption especially in the lower levels though we have improved now (in 2013 some would call us the most corrupt institute). Previously a lot of the top brass was brazenly corrupt but our current seniors are very straightforward and transparent. There's still a lot of it going around though especially in Traffic which I learned about when I did a rotation of 6 months in their offices. The problem is that your standard hawaldar (kinda our version of a patrolman) makes really shitty pay but IMO that is no excuse for being corrupt.

I'd like to cap this off by saying that this particular incident was more of an outlier but we still have plenty of violent attacks especially on the small scale to deal with.

Extra short version: We backward and ignorant AF especially the older gens.

 

[KingGhidorah]

It’s Pakistan...

 

[Paltheos]

Well this lawyer incident is isolated in terms of someone being from the apparently educated demographic being involved in this. Hospitals themselves have been attacked 3 times in the last year all within the province I'm stationed in rn. The reason these lawyers organized into attack mobs is because a doctor made fun of them on social media.
Now as far as the elements that lead to events like this there's

1. Lack of ethics (here lawyer/judge backroom deals are very common, as are judges/lawyers taking bribes)
2. Party/Affiliate/Brotherhood culture where people from the same political party/occupation take care of their own so a judge would in most cases go "easy" on these lawyers. Same w/ any other occupation eg doctors look out for each other. Sort of a Us vs Them mentality.
3. Lack of *decent* education beyond rote memorization, widespread illiteracy (not in this particular attack though). Seriously I've been to several trials and all you'll see are leading questions/badgering and the like. All the things you shouldn't do as a lawyer are the only thing most lawyers are good at here.
4. General frustration at living in what is essentially a failed state where you have to deal with things like loadshedding (where you have no electricity for a few hours, lower middle class and below peeps have it really bad and can't really do anything about it), a really poor economy, institutionalized corruption everywhere, lack of gov support for poor demographics
5. An established attitude of religion>everything which in turn leads to persecution of minorities and is responsible for the regular attacks on various minorities.
6. Poor healthcare unless you go to a private institute, poor performance of every govt so far (including this one) that has made the situation even worse. Even a book wouldn't be enough to cover this particular topic but a TL;DR is illiteracy, nepotism, corruption, poverty, frustration, ignorance and bigotry. Mob culture is still very common here.

As far as being hamstrung yes very much so. As an inspector if I arrest the *wrong* person who happens to know my superior officers I can be dismissed without compensation/pay and bam that's that. The Health Minister recently attacked a few doctors with his own private guards and none of them were punished so VIP culture/being untouchable is very much a thing here. Other than that lack of proper forensic procedures/protocols/good evidence record keeping a whole lotta other shit too that deserves its own book.
Generally speaking we have a few rules:
Someone's in the army ranked Capt or higher don't bother/arrest em unless ordered to do so (which they have their own people for so generally we don't go near em).
Session Judge or higher don't bother em.
Any Govt Officer Grade 19 or higher don't bother em.
To get guys like them you have to be either really high up or be ordered to do so.


Since I mentioned corruption it's only fair that I mention our own institute is pretty corrupt as well. There's plenty of corruption especially in the lower levels though we have improved now (in 2013 some would call us the most corrupt institute). Previously a lot of the top brass was brazenly corrupt but our current seniors are very straightforward and transparent. There's still a lot of it going around though especially in Traffic which I learned about when I did a rotation of 6 months in their offices. The problem is that your standard hawaldar (kinda our version of a patrolman) makes really shitty pay but IMO that is no excuse for being corrupt.

I'd like to cap this off by saying that this particular incident was more of an outlier but we still have plenty of violent attacks especially on the small scale to deal with.

Extra short version: We backward and ignorant AF especially the older gens.

I don't really have anything to add but I wanted to thank you for writing all that out.
Sounds like things are pretty fucked but I'm glad things are a little better anyway in your department.

 

[Nightrunner]

Looks like this lawyer took a move straight out of Agent 47's playbook. He pretended to be a patient and was escorted out to safety by a policeman.