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Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior, has questioned why Members of Parliament (MP) are getting a pay increase as well as a whopping amount of GH�50,000 as rent allowance when the needs of doctors are not being met. He said the issues of doctors and their remuneration have been pending for some time now yet government has turned deaf ears and a blind eye to it and rather increasing their pay and other benefits. �MPs, Ministers, and government appointees as well as the President ask for pay increase and they get it yet the cries of doctors, teachers and other public sector workers are not heard. If government is increasing the salaries of MPs and Ministers, why not doctors?� he queried. Kwesi Pratt was reacting to a strike action being embarked on by doctors as well as its implication on the less privileged in society. The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) on Monday withdrew outpatient services as it embarked on a nationwide strike over salary distortions. According to the doctors, they will only attend to emergencies and in-patients for this week. However, they will intensify with all services withdrawn if government does not respond to the strike within the week. Contributing to panel discussions on Peace FM�s Morning show �Kokrokoo� with host Tweneboa Kodua (TK) on Tuesday, Kwesi Pratt said: �It is the less privileged that will suffer from the strike action; because there is no way a member of government will fall sick and not have a doctor to attend to him or her. That is why they are putting on a lackadaisical attitude towards solving the problems of doctors. If the leaders don�t show sacrifice, they should not expect sacrifice from anybody� �we should get leaders who are able to sacrifice. From the way they are behaving, it will even get to a point where no one will even queue up to go and vote because at the end of the day, they (government) are the ones going to benefit; while those who voted for them suffer and die�. Meanwhile, doctors have withdrawn their strike action following an emergency meeting that was held at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday. The emergency meeting was attended by representatives of government, the National Labour Commission (NLC), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA). In a statement signed by the Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, the Chief of Staff, Mr. Prosper Douglas Bani, urged all parties in labour disputes to allow the appropriate institutions of state to resolve the issue. The various parties agreed that the arbitration award given by the NLC should be implemented to resolve the current impasse.