A scuffle broke out on Wednesday between a senior doctor and activists of the People’s Paramedical Staff Welfare Association (PPSWA) over the treatment of a patient, officials said.

The paramedical activists brought a patient, Safaruddin, for treatment at the OPD of the Orthopaedic section at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK). They allegedly insisted on admitting him at the ward. Assistant Professor Dr Lutfullah Baloch said however, that the patient’s condition was not serious enough to warrant admission. This resulted in a brawl. “The doctor was beaten up badly, and his clothes were torn,” a senior doctor at the CHK told The News.

A PPSWA activist, Abbas Raza Shah, and Khwaja Majeed, the patient’s son were also injured. A medico-legal officer (MLO) said that the two men were probably injured [on the head] when they were pushed against a wall. He said Dr Baloch also visited the CHK emergency ward for treatment where PPSWA activists allegedly misbehaved with the doctors again.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued Wednesday, the All-Sindh PPSWA said that Dr Baloch had asked the patient to visit his private clinic and had become furious when Shah told him that he was a poor man.

The doctor pushed the patient and when Shah asked him to stop, the doctor allegedly took out a pistol and hit him with its butt, the PPSWA statement claimed.

The association urged the Sindh chief minister and other authorities to take action against the doctor.