Ministry inquiry against PIMS hospital director stayed

Islamabad : Hospital director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Dr Khalid Masud has secured a stay order from the Islamabad High Court against the national health services ministry’s inquiry against him over a gynaecological patient’s death in the hospital allegedly due to an infected syringe or drug reaction.

The development came during the hearing into Dr Khalid Masud’s petition by Justice Aamer Farooq.

While seeking the response of the PIMS Board of Governors to the plea, the court directed Deputy Secretary (Tech-I) of the ministry Zafar Iqbal to appear before it on the next hearing scheduled for August 3.

In the petition, the PIMS hospital director insisted that he faced two parallel inquires on the matter, one on the orders of the Board of Governors of the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Act, 2021, and the other on the instructions issued by the national health services ministry. He insisted that Section 6(1)(c) of the MTI law declared the BoG of the FMTI to be competent to order disciplinary proceedings against employees, so the ministry’s directions for inquiry against him were without lawful authority.

Dr Khalid Masud prayed the court to stay those instructions.

The court declared that it granted the counsel for respondent PIMS BoG the time for filing the response to the petition and thus, suspending action on the ministry’s inquiry orders against the petitioner until the next hearing on August 3.