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Thursday March 28, 2024

Health Dept yet to act against fake, irrelevant degree holders

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department is indecisive on taking action against certain doctors holding key positions allegedly on the basis of fake or irrelevant degrees.Senior Health Department officials and documents available with The News revealed that some of the doctors didn’t even possess relevant degrees, but were appointed to

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
September 11, 2015
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department is indecisive on taking action against certain doctors holding key positions allegedly on the basis of fake or irrelevant degrees.
Senior Health Department officials and documents available with The News revealed that some of the doctors didn’t even possess relevant degrees, but were appointed to important positions in the department as well as in the foreign-funded projects. They are drawing handsome salaries and enjoying perks and privileges.
“There are known characters in the provincial Health Department. They lack qualification but have strong connections that enabled them to occupy lucrative positions,” a senior Health Department official told The News.
Pleading anonymity, he admitted that despite spending a huge chunk of resources on provision of health services, the government could not get tangible results as ‘blue-eyed’ doctors always occupy key positions in the health department.
Besides, some doctors were found guilty by the Public Service Commission (PSC), Peshawar High Court (PHC) and even the Supreme Court for producing unrelated documents for appointment on BPS-19 posts in Health Department. However, no disciplinary action was taken against them.
The PSC in January 2013 advertised 19 positions of Member of Service (BPS-19) in the Health Department.
Following qualification was needed for the positions. 1) Ph.D/M.Phil in health management, hospital administration, health planning policy formulation or allied disciplines with eight years experience in the management field or 2) Masters degree in public health or hospital administration or health planning management or health planning policy formulation or equivalent with 12-year experience in the relevant field.
According to sources, those who didn’t qualify arranged degrees on emergency basis from unrecognized institutions.
Dr Sahib Gul, Dr. Rajwal Khan and Dr Jawad Habib reportedly possessed EMBA/ MBA qualifications, which were irrelevant for the posts they had applied for.
The commission without verification of their documents called them for interview in October 2013. Aggrieved candidates informed the commission that certain doctors weren’t eligible for these posts.
These posts required specific qualifications and the candidates needed 12 years post-qualification experience to be eligible for these posts. The PHSA started MPH courses in 2003-04 and the first batch that passed out in 2004-05 was to complete 12 years experience in 2017.
The commission postponed interviews and sought equivalent degrees from the doctors. They produced degrees which were neither recognized by PMDC nor HEC.
Dr Sahib Gul, Dr Rajwal Khan, Dr Jawad Habib and one non-doctor Mohammad Tariq managed to influence the PSC to conduct their interviews on February 3, 2014.
After interviews, the results were displayed on the commission’s website.
The aggrieved doctors again made representation to the commission and also approached the PHC. The PHC issued stay order and the PSC initiated its inquiry.
The PSC in its report stated: “You failed to provide proof from the competent authority about equivalency of your EMBA or MBA qualification to any of the prescribed qualification required for the post. Therefore the Commission has decided to cancel your candidature for the subject cited post.”
Interestingly, Dr Rajwal Khan and Dr Sahib Gul obtained MBA degrees from the same institution, Al-Khair University (AJK) Islamabad Campus, in the same session, 1998-2000, and their serial certificates were 032587 and 032588.
“Both attended these courses without taking leave or permission from the Health Department. Interestingly both remained on duty during that period,” the official said.
The case of Jawad Habib is particularly interesting. He had obtained two different MBA degrees in health management from separate universities, one in Pakistan and another in the United States.
Shockingly, both degrees were obtained within the span of three months in January 2001 and April 2001. The courses were attended without taking leave or permission from the department. He remained on duty even while attending course in the US.
A senior official said the Health department failed to check these irregularities as most of the officers were involved in these wrong-doings.
In its reply to the PHC, the commissioner mentioned that Dr Sahib Gul possessed MBA degree which was irrelevant.
Dr Sahib Gul has always worked on prized posts in the department and is presently provincial chief of Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH). He was appointed by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to the grade-19 post without following the prescribed rules.
The commission also stated that Dr Rajwal Khan, who did his MD from Afghanistan, didn’t fulfill the basic requirement of qualification. He too served on lucrative positions in the foreign-funded projects. Currently he is associated with UN AIDS Control Programme in Islamabad.
The commission noted that Dr Jawad Habib possessed Executive MBA which was neither relevant nor equivalent under the rules.
Interestingly, he has been serving as secretary medical faculty since 2011 because of his strong contacts political and bureaucratic contacts. The post was BPS-17 but when he was promoted to BPS-18, the post was also upgraded according to his promotion in 2013.
According to the commission, the non-doctor Mohammad Tariq didn’t produce authentication/verification from the competent authority of his MA degree from Leeds University. It added he also failed to produce proof from the competent authority regarding fulfillment of the requirement of 12 years experience in the relevant field.
After the PHC verdict, Dr Sahib Gul and others went to the Supreme Court.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Jawad S Khwaja dismissed their petition and stated that “they repeatedly asked the counsel for the petitioners to show them if the HEC had given any certificate that the education degrees held by the petitioners were equivalent to either of the two qualifications given in the advertisement. He was unable to do so but instead led us to different documents, including some opinion expressed by the Committee in KP PSC. This is wholly irrelevant because under section 10 of the HEC Ordinance 2002, it is only the HEC which can issue an equivalent certificate.”
The court noted that no committee of PSC or even the PSC itself can decide the equivalence.
“While exercising our discretionary jurisdiction under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution, we find no reason to interfere in the impugned judgment. Consequently, this petition is dismissed and leave to appeal is declined,” the court stated.