Incompetence, inefficiency at their peak in Punjab: CJP

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar remarked on Sunday that incompetence and inefficiency have reached their peak in Punjab. He came down hard on Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and her ministry’s officials over their abysmal performance in the health sector.

A two-judge bench, headed by the chief justice, reprimanded the minister over failure to comply with the court directives for carrying out first-ever operation of liver transplant at the Pakistan Liver and Kidney Research Institute (PKLI).

Justice Ijazul Ahsan was the other member of the bench. As the hearing commenced, the CJP asked health minister about the date for conducting the first kidney transplant in Pakistan’s history; however, the minister started beating about the bush and could not give an exact date. She said the court should not worry about it, as progress was being made on it.

This infuriated the chief justice, who remarked: “Rs22 billion from national exchequer was spent on the institution, but it had been given to private individuals. It should have been taken over by the government.”

When asked about legislation with regard to the PKLI, the minister said a draft bill had been sent to the provincial law department for review and vetting. “You gave a similar reply at the previous hearing,” the chief justice said, expressing displeasure over, what he said, the government’s lip-service. “You don’t want the Supreme Court to help the Punjab government. You make lame excuses at every hearing.”

He questioned whether the first-ever liver transplant surgery was performed at the institute. “We had given the deadline for carrying out the first surgery. Is this your performance? “Bibi, you have to take care of it, but you haven’t been doing anything,” Justice Nisar said while pointing to the minister. “You and the Punjab government pay mere lip service at every hearing. You haven’t been able to form even a commission till today. We are making the government’s incompetence in the case as part of the court’s written order,” the chief justice said.

“You have failed to provide healthcare facilities in the province. People will hold you accountable. “You have badly failed to come up to the expectations of the SC. Do whatever you want to run the PKLI,” the chief justice thundered, adding that the PKLI was being run under a trust and health ministry had paid a deaf ear to the SC’s repeated directives to dissolve the trust.

Dr Yasmin reiterated that homework has almost been done on this issue as well. This further annoyed the court and the CJP pointed out: “You are again paying lip service. For God’s sake, stop this rhetoric. I am fed up with it.”

Justice Ijazul Ahsan said the health minister had not even removed people having vested interests from the trust. “It may be the Punjab government’s policy to keep together people having vested interests,” the CJP added. The court adjourned the hearing till the last week of February.