Candidates suffer due to interview cancellation

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of people mostly retired personnel of armed forces suffered hardships as they travelled from various parts of the province to appear in interviews for security guards at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) that were cancelled due to pressure from some lawmakers, sources told The News.
The HMC administration had advertised positions of security supervisors and guards at the hospital and invited retired security personnel for interviews. The candidates, including retired junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and soldiers from the armed forces blamed the HMC administration for not informing them prior to the cancellation of the interviews.
“I came from Swat while several others had arrived from distant areas such as Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Karak, Bannu, Abbottabad and Buner districts but we were astonished when we were told that the interviews have been cancelled,” complained Ibrahim Khan, a retired JCO from the Pakistan Army.
He said they were told that interviews had been cancelled due to pressure from lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as they wanted the hospital administration to appoint their people. “It would have been better had the HMC administration informed the candidates about cancellation of the interviews. They placed an advertisement about cancellation of the interviews in the newspapers two days later,” said Javaid Khan, another retired JCO and candidate for the security supervisor.
He said some candidates had arrived a day earlier for the interviews from remote areas and spent night in hotels to reach the hospital on time. Some insiders at the HMC said that Chief Executive Dr Mumtaz Marwat proved to be a weak administrator by failing to resist political pressure. “Since he is junior he is worried about his position,” said an official at HMC.
Dr Mumtaz Marwat didn’t attend phone calls to seek his comments.Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai said the interviews were cancelled after the local MPAs raised the issue. “Some MPAs from Peshawar wanted to get their people appointed. Since it didn’t involve any major appointments to affect healthcare services, therefore the interviews were cancelled to give a chance to everybody,” the health minister argued. He said the HMC administration should have informed all the candidates before cancelling the interviews.