KP govt removes BoG of Nowshera Medical College

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday took a strange decision and removed the entire Board of Governors (BoG) of Medical Teaching Institute Nowshera Medical College situated in the hometown of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

The decision was made at a time when the provincial cabinet extended a three-year tenure of the board of governors of Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) in Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH) in Abbottabad, though it is subject to review by the two-member committee and verdict of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).

CJP Mian Saqib Nisar had constituted the committee, comprising Secretary Health Abid Majeed and Maj-Gen (retired) Asif Ali Khan, ATH Abbottabad BoG chairman. They will submit their report within seven days.

The provincial secretary health issued a notification and de-notified all seven members of the BoG Nowshera Medical College (NMC) and its teaching hospital, Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex (QHAMC).

The hospital was named after Qazi Hussain Ahmad, the late chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, who hailed from Nowshera district.

Senior faculty members of the college in Nowshera told The News that the BoG did not suit some powerful people in the government.

“These powerful people in the government hoped to use the BoG as a rubber stamp and dictate whatever they wanted to do in the college and hospital. The BoG did whatever was possible as per law to appease these influential PTI people from Nowshera but there was no end to their demands,” said one senior faculty member.

Pleading anonymity, he said these PTI people in Nowshera were publicly saying that they needed jobs for lower staff not the faculty members.

“Unfortunately, neither the college nor the hospital flourished due to negative and selfish attitude of the ruling elite.

The majority of patients of Nowshera are either going to the Mardan Medical Complex or Peshawar for minor health facilities,” said the consultant.

A former administrator of the hospital said the PTI elite in Nowshera needed a free hand in the college and hospital which was not possible in the presence of an independent BoG. On October 25, last year, when the government dissolved the entire BoG, its members, led by chairman Zafeerullah Khan had challenged their removal in the Peshawar High Court (PHC). A two-member bench, comprised the then acting Chief Justice PHC Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali had declared dissolution of BoG illegal and restored their membership.

The BoG for Nowshera Medical College was constituted after proper legal formalities of MTI Law in February 2016 for a period of three years.

On that occasion, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak dissolved the BoG in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 15 read with Section 20 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa General Clauses Act, 1956, and Section 20 (I) of the MTIRA 2015.

The BoG comprised Dr Col Syed Qamar, a psychiatrist retired from the Army Medical Corps (AMC), Dr Falak Naz, retired gynecologist, Zafeerullah Khan, former general manager of the Civil Aviation Authority, Rauf Khattak, former federal secretary, Jamshed Khan, former federal joint secretary, S.A Shakeel Khan, former banker and Arif Khattak, social worker.

The government has mentioned no reason for de-notifying the BoG members.

Interestingly, the government removed the board but didn’t appoint any one to take care of the two medical teaching institutions in Nowshera in the absence of the BoG.