Govt restrained from making cardiology institute part of MTI

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday restrained the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from making the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology part of the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI).

A two-member bench comprising Justice Irshad Qaiser and Justice Syed Afsar Shah issued the stay order in a writ petition filed by Pakistan Medical Association through its provincial president Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon against making the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology as part of the MTI.

The court issued notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, directing to submit reply to the legal questions raised in the petition before next hearing.

In another case, the bench issued a notice to the provincial government in a writ petition of the director hospital of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

The petition prayed the court to declare the government’s notification as void as it allowed only 10 percent purchase of medicines of the total budget of the hospitals.

LRH Director Hospital Col (Retired) Hamid Saeed Haq had filed the petition.The lawyer for the petitioner submitted that the provincial government had in 2006 issued a notification, in which the hospitals were allowed to spend only 10 percent for local purchase of the total budget for the hospital.

After enactment of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, the lawyer said there was no legal status of the notification issued in 2006 for using only 10 per cent for local purchase of the total budget.

He said that the hospitals were independent institutions under the MTI Act and were free to purchase medicines as per their requirement and need. The court issued notices to secretary and director general Health Services of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, directing them to submit reply in the case.