PESHAWAR: Hundreds of general cadre doctors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are anxiously awaiting action by the chief secretary on the irregularities in induction and promotions in the health management cadre of provincial Health Department. The general cadre doctors had sent a two-page application, duly signed by the aggrieved doctors, to the chief secretary on August 26, 2015 seeking his attention towards irregularities in induction and promotions of the Management Cadre doctors. The copy of the application is available with The News. However, frustration is mounting among the aggrieved doctors due to the delay in an answer by the chief secretary. “The chief secretary was the only hope for us and that is the reason we knocked at his doors. We are still hoping he will take note of the irregularities,” a general cadre doctor told The News. The health management cadre was introduced as a separate cadre for doctors working in the health department on December 11, 2008. The doctors complained it wasn’t widely circulated as is evident from the fact that just one week time was given to the doctors working across the province. They said even qualified doctors serving in Peshawar were kept unaware about this option at the time. “Fourteen doctors, who were not qualified in 2009 and have taken degrees in July/August 2009 and 2010, were included in the new cadre as they gave the option without having requisite qualifications/degrees. It means they have given false statements. No verification of degrees has ever been done, only one degree was verified due to some personal reasons and it turned out to be a fake,” the doctor said. A group of general cadre doctors said that no condition of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognition of their degrees was put at the time of introducing the new cadre, though it is mentioned in schedule-II of the rules that degrees are to be recognised by PMDC/HEC. It merits mention here that the condition of recognition by PMDC was unanimously agreed in a meeting held on November 13, 2009 in the Health Department under the chairmanship of the additional secretary health. The meeting decided that any additional or higher qualification acquired by a doctor will be considered ultra vires unless and until it is recognised by the PMDC. The decision was communicated to all sub-offices via letter no 44521-600 dated November 25, 2009 to direct all the concerned doctors having diploma/degree in management to register their additional qualification with PMDC at the earliest. Surprisingly though nothing has been done in this regard as the promotions in this cadre are being allowed without fulfilling this basic condition. The doctors’ application noted that rule 10 of the Health Management Service rules states that it was one time exercise and was closed in 2009, which is a violation of the basic human rights under article 4, 25 and 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan. As per the application, all those who were qualified at the time or all those who improved their qualifications after that should have been given a chance without any prejudice or discrimination. “Interestingly, rule 8 states that private practice is prohibited for all those opting for the new cadre, but most of them are doing private practices, getting non-practicing allowance and enjoying the lucrative posts of the new cadre as well. What has been done for the implementation of this rule? And what action has been taken against the violators,” the doctors said in the application. They said at the time of creation of this cadre in 2009, the department didn’t call those who did post-graduation, Master’s in Public Health (MPH) within the country and abroad on the state exchequer, thus depriving not only the qualified people of their due right but also wasting huge investment made by the government on human resource development. According to the doctors, appointment/promotions method given in schedule-II of the Rules page-4 and 5 has been misinterpreted as definition of the word “service” is given on page-2 of the rules which means Health Management Service” and the length of service required for promotion is five years for BS-20, seven years for BS-19, and five years for BS-18 after the notification of the cadre in late 2009. “All the subsequent promotions given in this cadre in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are premature and are in violation of these rules,” they stated in the application. According to the doctors, most of the applications for the cadre were given after the last date of July 6, 2009, which can be verified from the list of members of service recently provided by the Health Directorate to the Health Secretariat. They alleged that 79 out of 187 doctors including the current Director General gave applications after the last date. “It is a general principle that once an option is given for a new cadre, it ceases the right of the previous cadre. But the most astonishing thing happened when 24-25 doctors who opted for Management Cadre on or before July 6, 2009 were given promotions from BS-17 to 18 in general cadre on September 10, 2009 and three more doctors of the same cadre were promoted in general cadre on November 19, 2011 and all of them were then promoted from BS-18 to 19 in Management Cadre on March 6, 2013, and Sept 22, 2014, setting aside all rules and regulations,” the doctors explained. In 2012, they said 19 posts of BS-19 were advertised through Public Service Commission and again in 2013 having the same eligibility criteria. They maintained that most of them were ineligible at the commission, but were promoted from BS-18 to 19 in Management Cadre in 2013 and 2014. In some of the cases, they complained, the Public Service Commission (PSC) submitted comments to the Peshawar High Court that these doctors do not possess the required qualification. They said some of the enclosed degrees were an eye-opener as to how a person obtained two degrees within the span of three months from two different countries. “How a person who obtained degree in 2010 has been included in a cadre formed in 2009, how factually degrees have been made in 2013 to fulfill the Commission’s requirement,” the doctors asked. They said the PSC letters are self-explanatory as the ineligible people were earlier promoted in 2013 and now their case has been sent to the Provincial Selection Board for promotion to BS-19. The doctors appealed that all future promotions in health management cadre, particularly those from BS-18 to 19, should be stopped immediately as it should not happen before the end of 2021 as per rules. “The seniority list should be brought back to the status of June 2009 as all these promotions have been in violation of the rules, recovery of all the received non-practicing allowance shall be made from those doing private practice and disciplinary action should be taken against the violators of rules,” the affected doctors demanded. Also, they wanted the chief secretary to order scrutiny and verification of the post-graduation degrees/documents of those who made it into the management cadre. They also want that dates of declaration of results or degrees of those who are in the management cadre should be verified as to how all those who acquired degrees in 2010 or later made it to the cadre which was closed on July 6, 2009.
