SC seeks report from health secy on doctors’ promotions

The Supreme Court directed the Sindh health secretary on Thursday to submit within one month a report on promotion of government doctors on grades 18, 19 and 20.
Hearing a petition filed by Dr Usman Mako against the non-promotion of the health department’s doctors, a two-member SC bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that improvements in the state of public hospitals would be difficult if the doctors who treat patients remained dissatisfied with their working conditions.
The court ordered that all doctors with unblemished performance records should be promoted in accordance with the law. Sindh Health Secretary Fazaullah Pechuho submitted that the selection board and a departmental promotion committee for grade 17 doctors and those at grade 18 and above had finalised lists of doctors.
However, he said some meetings on the matter were scheduled to be held over the next two weeks and sought time to file a compliance report.
The secretary submitted that 233 female medical officers have been promoted, while a total of 1,299 doctors of grade 17 had not reported to the department despite advertisements being published in the print media.
He said 83 doctors had registered through the biometric system and sought a month’s time to finalise the matter. The court directed the secretary to ensure that the promotion committee decided on the cases without further delay.
The petitioners, Dr Usman Mako and Dr Nawaz Ali Mallah, have accused the health secretary of discriminating against them in promotion matters, alleging that many doctors junior to them had been promoted while their cases have been pending for the past several years. Dr Nawaz has also alleged that he has not been paid his salary for more than two years.
The court asked the secretary as to why the two doctors were being discriminated against and directed him to take up their promotion cases along with others in pending.