PHC suspends govt’s notification on MTIs’ dissolution

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday suspended an earlier notification of the caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government regarding dissolution of the Medical Teaching Institutions Policy Board and directed it to submit its reply by April 17.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice S.M Atique Shah heard the writ petition filed by Shumail Ahmad Butt and Ali Gohar Durrani on behalf of members of the Policy Board.

The petitioners told the bench that the provincial government had on January 26, 2022 appointed the Policy Board members under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2014 for a period of three years.

They informed the court that members of the Policy Board were nominated through the search and nomination council. They told the court that later on October 18, 2022, the government added a gynaecologist Prof Ghazala Mahmood to the Policy Board.

Their argument was that the government dissolved the Policy Board without completing its constitutional three-year period. The petitioners, however, informed the bench that chief secretary and secretary health during a meeting had objected to the dismissal of the Policy Board, adding that the Election Commission of Pakistan had banned transfers and postings of government employees.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Aamir Javed told the court that he would submit his reply to the court in this regard. Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim in his comments stated that the caretaker government had forgotten its work and started doing things, which it was not supposed to do.

The bench suspended the notification and issued a stay order for restoration of the Policy Board. The court directed the advocate general to submit their reply by April 17. In the past, the government had suspended the board of governors, sometimes even on very funny terms.

The example of the Board of Governors of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex in Nowshera will always be referred to as the PTI government dissolved the board under political pressure when the board members decided to appoint people to technical positions purely on merit.

The previous government had dismissed the board of the Mardan Medical Complex for political reasons.The previously government was accused of not following the MTI Act 2015 in the appointment of BoG members.

Never in the past, the search and nomination council was allowed to recommend candidates for the BoGs. They were mostly selected on the basis of political affiliations. The story of Policy Board was thought to be different than the BoGs, as its members were mostly professionals of their respective fields.

It would be a huge shock for the caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government if the Policy Board was not dissolved as they had planned replacing all the boards of the public sector health institutions.

The Policy Board was headed by Dr Nausherwan Burki and other members of the board included Lt-Gen (Retd) Salahuddin, Chairman of BoG of Bacha Khan Medical Complex (BKMC), Swabi, Dr Tahir Aziz, Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, Dr Zeeshan bin Ishtiaq, medical director, Shifa International, Islamabad, and Prof Dr Ghazala Mahmood, a gynaecologist who served in the Shifa International, Islamabad.

Dr Nausherwan Burki, a pulmonologist by profession, is the architect of so-called health reforms in KP. He is a cousin of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. Many people in the health sector don’t like him for his rigid stance and appointing junior doctors as head of departments to dictate their professors. The reform process began in 2015 after the provincial assembly passed a law - Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, commonly.