PHC stays appointment of medical college principal

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stayed the appointment of dean/principal of Khyber Girls Medical College till the next order in a writ petition filed against the appointment.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Afsar Shah and Justice Ghazanfar Ali also sought reply from the Board of Governors (BoGs), directing them to explain the criteria for appointment of dean/principal of the medical college.

The court issued the stay order in a writ petition of Dr Aminul Haq, in which he had challenged the criteria for the appointment of dean/principal of the college under the Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI) Act 2015.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Farhan Tariq, submitted before the bench that the government advertised the post of dean/principal for the Khyber Girls Medical College. However, he said that the government did not include those doctors for the post, who had done M.Phil. He said that only diploma holder doctors who did FCPS and FRCS were asked to apply for the post.

The lawyer said this act of the government was illegal as the doctors’ M Phil degree was much better and valuable than the diploma of FCPS and FRCS. The court, after hearing arguments, stayed the appointment of dean/principal of the college and sought reply from the authorities concerned.

Meanwhile, another bench of the high court comprising Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali suspended the transfer order of president of Nursing Association Farrukh Jalil and sought reply from the secretary health and chairman BoG in a writ petition filed against the transfer order.

The petitioner’s lawyer Mohibullah Kakakhel submitted that his client and other nursing staff had staged protest for their rights and as a result she was transferred from Peshawar to Kohat and under MTI Act the secretary health has no power to transfer the petitioner.