CJ pays surprise visit to Ayub Teaching Hospital

PESHAWAR: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Wednesday paid a surprise visit of the Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in Abbottabad and took notice of patients suffering and alleged corruption, misappropriation of funds and illegal appointments and decided to hear all the cases in the Supreme Court registry in Peshawar on May 8, sources in the hospital told The News.

The chief justice after returning from the scenic Balakot, badly affected in the October 8, 2005 devastating earthquake, went to the public sector tertiary care hospital in Abbottabad.

Besides faculty members and junior doctors, the chief justice met patients ?and their attendants and listened to their complaints.

Some members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) complained to the chief justice that there has been massive corruption in the hospital and its adjoining medical college but no action was taken against those involved as they were influential people. The chief justice asked about the nature of issues when a YDA representative told them that they have a number of issues in the institution.

“Sir, there has been corruption in the gynaecology and paediatric and dentistry blocks and a number of people were been appointed illegally and rules were violated in promotions,” the YDA representative told the CJ. He further told the chief justice that a gynaecologist appointed as dean of the medical college with Rs600, 000? as her monthly salary was running her own private hospital in the same premises.

He further claimed that she was illegally appointed as dean.

On this, the dean, who was present ?there, told the chief justice that the Board of Governors(BoG) had exonerated her.

And the YDA representative then immediately interrupted ?and claimed that the inquiry conducted by the BoG was, in fact, bogus, which the chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Health Secretary had rejected.

The chief justice asked ?that why action was not taken then? the YDA representative replied that “Sir, there is a ‘Burki law’ in the hospitals and nobody is listening to the government.” “What type of law is this in which even the government can’t interfere and is paying too much while a professor is usually getting Rs150, 000. Why the government didn’t take action against the corruption then,” he asked.

Justice Saqib Nisar then ordered an ?inquiry into the alleged corruption allegations and decided to hear this case at the Supreme Court’s registry in Peshawar during his visit on May 8.

According to insiders, the chief justice was surprised when he came to know that despite the fact the Dean, Prof Azizunnissa, is being paid Rs600,000 a month but she has been running her private hospital.

Also, as per MTI Act 2015, dean and medical director are required to run their private clinics within the premises of their institutions.

However, Prof Azizunnissa had refused to shift her private clinic to the hospital but the previous chairman of BoG Javed Panni and some other members in the board had repeatedly exempted her from this condition due to reasons better known to them. Also, the faculty members said the chief justice went to ?the accident and emergency department and operation theatres and expressed his displeasure over the lack of services there.