PHC orders KTH to reprocess appointment of four chairmen

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Board of Governors (BoG) of Khyber Teaching Hospital to reprocess the appointment of four chairmen of various departments at the KTH.

The court said that due procedure was not followed in appointments. A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Abdul Shakoor ordered the KTH to reprocess the appointments within 15 days.

The bench was hearing the writ petitions field by Dr Ijaz, Dr Zakirullah, Dr Bashir and Dr Mustafa Iqbal against the appointments of the chairmen of four departments in the KTH.

The appointees included Dr Muhammad Tahir in Pathology Department, Dr S M Sultan in Psychiatry Department, who is retired now, Dr Arif Raza in ENT Department and Dr Ibrar in Ophthalmology Department.

The order stated that objections were made in writing by the petitioners to the inclusion of Dr Saleem Iqbal and Dr Naveed Alam as members of the selection committee, who according to the petitioners, were part of the selection group of Khyber Medical College fund. It said the objections were not heeded at the time of the selection process and its transparency and impartiality were also questioned.

The court said the assessment of the candidates was to be carried out on the basis of their track record as per the advertisement.

The court directed the KTH BoG to reprocess the appointments of the chairmen of the departments in accordance with the law and keeping in view the concerns and objections of the petitioners.

During the course of hearing, Waseemuddin Khattak appearing for the petitioners submitted that the BoG ignored senior doctors and appointed juniors in violation of the procedure.

The lawyer argued that the BoG in its statement had also expressed reservations over the process for the appointments. He submitted that criteria mentioned in the advertisement were not followed.

The lawyer submitted that junior professors were included in the selection committee by the Dean KMC without the approval of the BoG. Waseemuddin Khattak said the chairmen were interviewed after one day of the last date for inviting the applications that showed the malafide intensions on part of the authorities.

The lawyer also submitted that Health Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secretary didn't issue the no-objection certificate (NOC) to the chairmen of the departments as under the MTI Act they should first resign as civil servants to join the posts.

He said the secretary Health had clearly asked the respondents to either resign as civil servants or withdraw from the posts as chairmen of the departments, but they joined the positions without obtaining NOC from the Health Department. Counsel for the BoG, Saqib Raza, submitted the petitioners could approach the BoG if they had any grievances.

The court directed the petitioners to approach the BoG. Three doctors have also challenged the appointment of Dr Noorul Eman as KMC Dean. They claimed that he had not resigned as civil servant and was appointed KMC Dean which was a violation of the MTI Act.