PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department is under pressure to initiate an inquiry against certain influential doctors who allegedly got inducted into the management cadre and received undue promotions, sources and documents available with The News revealed. The sources said some doctors were so strong politically that they even managed to stop inquiry committees from being formed to probe irregularities committed during creation of the management cadre. A group of general cadre doctors in 2008 had suggested to the government to create management cadre to improve administrative affairs of the Health Department and upgrade patient care at the hospitals. A notification was issued in December the same year and on June 30, 2009 the government sought options from doctors of the general cadre. On the advice of some doctors, the government gave only one week to all doctors for exercising the options. The criterion for the management cadre was Masters in Public Health (MPH). Doctors posted in remote districts came to know about this when date for exercising the options had already passed. “Interestingly, the government had sent some doctors overseas for advanced training in management spending millions of rupees, but when they returned the influential doctors opposed their induction in the management cadre. They were advised to wait for vacant positions being advertised by the Public Service Commission,” a senior official of the Health Department said on condition of anonymity. However, certain influential doctors managed their registration in the new cadre even though the deadline had passed years ago. According to documents available with The News, the current list of management cadre comprised of 187 doctors against 351 posts. Most in this list didn’t have the diary number of their applications. Besides other doctors presently posted against key positions, the incumbent Director General Health and Services, Dr Pervez Kamal, was also inducted into the new cadre after expiry of the cutoff date. He had given application 23 days after the deadline on July 29, 2009. He was at number 14 in seniority list of the management cadre when appointed DG Health by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government. After the retirement of four doctors this year he is now 10th in the seniority list. As per rules, the government is required to appoint on merit among the 10 senior-most doctors for the grade-20 position of DG Health and Services. Some applications didn’t have the date on which these were filed. Other applicants didn’t produce degrees along with applications, but were inducted into the cadre. Dr Ali Ahmad, director health services, was inducted into the management cadre, but his application carried no date. Dr Mohammad Ali Chohan, who had held key positions in the Health Department and is considered the pioneer of creating this cadre, was inducted into the new cadre on September 4, 2009 almost two months after the expiry of the cutoff date. The rules and regulations were bypassed by promoting influential doctors to upper grades in management cadre. As per rules, doctors after serving for five years in grade-19 in the Health Management service are eligible for promotion to grade-20. Ironically, the management cadre doctors while occupying key positions created posts and promoted each other without following the rules. The doctors were supposed to work in grade-18 for seven years in service (management cadre) for promotion to grade-19. The grade-18 doctors who opted for the service in July 2009 were supposed to be promoted to grade-19 in July 2016. Still 64 managed to get promotions to grade-19 in March 2013. In October 2013, seven more doctors were promoted to grade-19 and three in September 2014. Promotion from grade-17 to 18 requires five years in service (management cadre), but 49 doctors were promoted to grade-18 on October 10, 2013. Some doctors were promoted both in management cadre and general cadre. “When you gave option, you gave up all your rights in previous cadre,” an official of the Health Department said. But 24 such doctors who opted for management cadre in July 2009 were promoted in general cadre from grade-17 to 18 in September 2009 and three more got promotions in general cadre from grade-17 to 18 in November 2011. All these doctors were promoted again in management cadre from grade-18 to 19 in March and October 2013, bypassing rules. They enjoyed promotions in both these cadres. The Health Department didn’t even bother to verify the postgraduate degrees such as MPH, M Phil and PhD in health management, enabling several doctors with less qualification or fake degrees to get promotions. When reached for comments, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shahram Khan Tarakai said he would definitely order a high-level inquiry if there were any irregularities. He added he would not spare anyone if found involved in irregularities.
