Wrongdoing alleged in AMI recruitment process

Chairman BoG claims candidates having experience recruited

ABBOTTABAD: The Ayub Medical Institute (AMI) Board of Governors (BoG) chairman allegedly selected doctor of his choice for the post of secretary of the BoG.

According to information gathered by this correspondent, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed BoG Chairman Ayub Medical Institute Javed Panni reportedly used his influence in the recruitment of senior management bypassing rules.

It was learnt that he developed criteria for the selection of dean, medical director, hospital director, finance director, nursing director and secretary BoG and didn’t fix age limit.Mostly retired professors and other professionals applied for the highly paid posts.

The chairman fixed high salary packages including Rs600,000 for dean, Rs500,000 for hospital director, Rs400,000 for medical director and Rs300,000 for secretary BoG.It was learnt that Brig (Retd) Mohammad Ajmal was selected as Hospital Director despite the fact that selection committee had recommended Director Health Fata Dr Zafeer, who secured top position during the interview.

Hospital sources said the advertisement for senior management was designed by present Secretary BoG Major (Retd) Siddiqur Rehman, who was acting Hospital Director at that time.It was learnt that no age limit was fixed for hospital director, medical director and dean of the college to favour certain candidates.

The selection committee was influenced to recommend dean and medical director from the medical college. The sources claimed that this act of selection committee had raised questions regarding the selection process.

An interesting situation emerged when an applicant shortlisted for the post of secretary BoG didn’t meet the criteria for the post. Two candidates had been shortlisted for the post. The chairman offered this coveted post to Siddiqur Rehman, the former acting hospital director, who had not applied for the job. 

According to the advertisement published in a section of the press, it clearly stated that the prospective candidate should hold a master’s degree in business administration or be a law graduate.

The advertisement said that a candidate having qualification of corporate sector would be preferred. It said the candidate should have seven years experience as secretary in a major private or public company.

It may be recalled that Dr Siddiqur Rehman remained hospital director for one year after his retirement at the age of 60 years.During this period, the provincial Health Department failed to settle the terms and conditions for Dr Siddiqur Rehman’s job.

He was appointed on contract basis in grade 20 in Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) Abbottabad as mentioned in his official notification issued on March, 25 2015.When approached, the BoG Chairman Javed Panni told this correspondent that Dr Siddiqur Rehman was appointed as secretary BoG as he was one of the three shortlisted candidates and appeared in the interview.  He said others had no experience and exposure about corporate sector and didn’t qualify the parameters. He said this candidate was asked to appear in the interview for finance director as he was eligible for that post.

Accepting the fact that Dr Siddiqur Rehman had not applied for the post nor qualified the criteria, Javed Panni said he was taken as Secretary BoG because the BoG didn’t want to leave the seat vacant due to its importance. He claimed that Dr Siddiqur Rehman had one year experience as secretary BoG and can run the affairs of the institution accordingly. “The decision was taken to run the new set-up as most of the senior managers were new. Either we could have left the seat vacant or appoint a suitable candidate,” he argued.

Earlier, Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Saleem Afzal  said he was not member of the selection committee for the secretary BoG and was unaware about the criteria and process that was adopted. He informed that the secretary was appointed by the BoG.