Routine medical care across Pakistan is suspended for two days, November 1–2, as doctors’ organisations carry out a nationwide strike over taxation, police action against doctors and workplace security.
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has called for outpatient departments, elective surgeries and routine diagnostic services to close at public and private facilities for the two days. Emergency services at government hospitals remain open, and patients with routine appointments or planned investigations are advised to confirm arrangements with their hospital or clinic before travelling.
The doctors’ grievances centre on Federal Board of Revenue raids on private clinics, criminal cases registered against doctors after alleged medical negligence, and what the PMA calls hostile tax and regulatory treatment — including a mandatory point-of-sale system and the treatment of medical services as retail transactions. The associations are also demanding institutional, legal and physical security at medical facilities.
The call comes from PMA Centre and its provincial branches alongside the Young Doctors Association, the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians, the Private Hospital Association and the Pakistan Dental Association. PMA Centre president Dr Izhar Ahmed Chaudhary announced the dates at a press briefing at PMA House in Karachi on October 29, and PMA Punjab and PMA Balochistan have issued their own circulars backing the strike. The associations say their next course of action will be decided at a PMA Central Council meeting on November 28.
The strike follows a one-day nationwide shutdown on September 30 and an All-Pakistan Doctors’ Convention in Gujrat on October 11, where around 500 medical professionals adopted resolutions on taxation, regulation, professional dignity and the rights of young doctors.
Sources: Dawn, 30 October 2026; Medical News, 31 October 2026; Dawn, 28 October 2026.
