PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has finally decided to replace the majority of members of the board of governors of medical teaching institutions, by proposing Prof Dr Nausherwan Burki as chairman of the Policy Board as well as chairman of the board of governors of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH). />In the MTIs, he argued, all administrative positions are required to be advertised and filled through a system explained in the MTI law.
Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah chaired the meeting.
In a previous meeting held a few weeks ago, the Search and Nomination Council had recommended a number of new names for different boards and proposed replacement of some of the members.
The government didn’t implement recommendations of the previous meeting as, according to official sources, some powerful figures in the government were not satisfied with the nomination of some people to the BoGs.
In the previous meeting, members of the four MTIs in Peshawar, including Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex and the Peshawar Institute of Cardiology were only discussed.
In the meeting held on Thursday, it was decided to follow recommendations of the last meeting regarding the four MTIs in Peshawar and also recommended members for other MTIs.
“The government wanted to remove maximum members of the BoGs in other MTIs such as Mardan Medical Complex, Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex in Nowshera, Ayub Medical Complex in Abbottabad, Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital Bannu and Mufti Mahmood Memorial Hospital in Dera Ismail Khan,” said an official of the health department.
Pleading anonymity, he said that a summary was initiated and sent to the relevant authorities for earlier notification.
“There are some members who have developed close liaison with the hospital administrations in some MTIs and planned to give extensions in their contracts, which is completely illegal and against the spirit of MTI law,” said the health department official.
Also, the official claimed that one reason that delayed the selection process of the BoGs was due to the plan of some of the board members to go to the court and challenge their removal.
According to sources, Dr Nausherwan Burki, who is cousin of former prime minister Imran Khan and the architect of much-publicised health reforms, introduced by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government in 2015 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is likely to arrive in Peshawar in the next few days and guide the provincial government in matters related to health.
According to officials, the government has decided to remove chairman Policy Board Prof Dr Ziaul Islam, Dr Hafizullah, and Dr Azar Rasheed. Dr Hafizullah is a close relative of health minister Syed Qasim Shah and he will continue to work as chairman of BoG PIC. Qasim Ali Shah told The News that Dr Hafizullah is his close relative but they decided to allow him to continue as chairman BoG PIC for his experience in cardiology.
Also, the government has decided to remove chairman BoG LRH Prof Dr Zubair Khan and other members of the board.
For the Mardan Medical Complex, the search and nomination council recommended a noted physician and former vice chancellor Prof Dr Arshad Javaid, by accepting the resignation of former chairman Attaullah Toru.
Other members of the board were also removed and their notification is likely to be issued very soon.
Another prominent physician and former Dean Khyber Medical College, Prof Dr Nurul Iman was recommended to lead the BoG of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex in Nowshera.
An Islamabad-anesthetist Dr Jehanzeb Malik was also proposed as member BoG for Nowshera.
Dr Jehanzeb Malik is close to PTI and his wife, Dr Shehnaz was recommended as BoG member for KTH.
The government has also approved removal of chairman BoG QHAMC Ashfaq Ahmad and members. The previous PTI government had appointed Prof Nurul Iman as chairman in Nowshera where he had initiated drastic reforms and improved patient care but the government then could not sustain political pressure and surrendered to a local politician.
There were reports that the government had planned to appoint him as chairman BoG PIC and tasked him to work for patient care and implement discipline.
For the Bacha Khan Medical Complex in Swabi, the government has recommended Maj-Gen (retired) Dr Salahuddin as chairman BoG. Gen Salahuddin was a former chairman BoG and member of the Policy Board and had initiated healthy reforms in the hospital by establishing new sub-specialties. A former board member Dr Mohammad Tufail has also been recommended for the BKMC board.
Three previous members will stay on the board and will be replaced later.
The government has decided to remove Dr Umar Ayub, chairman BoG Khyber Teaching Hospital, and some members of the BoG of Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), including its chairman Ghulam Qadir Khan, members Dr Mohammad Ali Chohan and Dilroz Khan, who was secretary finance of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P) when Pervez Khattak was its chairman.
Sahibzada Mohammad Saeed, former chairman BoG of HMC, has been recommended to lead the board.
The government has accepted the resignation of chairman BoG of Ayub Medical Complex, Mushtaq Jadoon.
Maj-Gen (retired) Amjad Faheem was recommended as chairman BoG for the hospital. Another member Maj (retired) Siddiq was also proposed for AMC in Abbottabad.
Also, the government decided to replace some membersoftheBoGs.