Medical and Teaching Institutions: PHC suspends notification on BoG chairmen appointment

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday suspended the notification about the appointment of the chairmen of the Board of Governors of the eight Medical and Teaching Institutions (MTIs) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali Shah and Justice Wiqar Ahmad suspended the notification and issued a notice to the provincial government to submit its reply.

On June 20, the government appointed the chairmen of the Board of Governors of eight government hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through a notification.

The court was hearing petitions seeking the removal of the BoG chairmen, who were recently appointed by the provincial government through the notification.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Shah Faisal Utmankhel, former secretary Health Mahmood Aslam, secretary Establishment and other relevant officials appeared before the court.

Barrister Babar Shahzad, Sangeen Khan and other lawyers appeared for the petitioners.

It may be mentioned that the government appointed the chairpersons of the Board of Governors of the eight medical teaching institutions despite the issuance of the contempt notices.

The PHC had issued contempt notices to the government for making the appointments. Dr Umar Ayub, the BoG chairman of the Khyber Teaching Hospital, had challenged his removal and had got a stay order from the court. Besides Umar Ayub, other members of the board had also challenged their removal.

The lawyer for Dr Umar Ayub told the bench that his client was appointed as the chairman BoG of Khyber Teaching Hospital in 2023 and he had informed the court at the last hearing that the government was mulling replacing him. However, the KP advocate general had told the court on June 13 that the petition of Dr Umar Ayub was premature. Justice Arshad Ali asked the advocate general that being a responsible official he had informed the court that no such thing was going to happen, but the petitioner was removed. Shah Faisal Utmankhel told the bench that he did not know about the details of the case and had come to the court in connection with another petition.

The lawyers for other petitioners told the court that the government appointed the BoGs in violation of the court orders, which amounted to contempt of court. Clubbing all the petitions together, the court suspended the notification and issued notices to the respondents.