Supreme Court directs PHC to decide case in 3 months

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to decide within three month petitions challenging the reappointment of Board of Governors (BoG) of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed disposed of the petitions, filed by Prof Dr Mustafa Iqbal, seeking transfer of his case from Peshawar High Court to Islamabad High Court. The court directed the Peshawar High Court to decide the instant petitions within three months by an available bench. Abdul Latif Afridi appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioner. At the outset of hearing, the chief justice observed that the condition of health sector has very much worsened in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP). The chief justice noted that whenever any person is appointed, cases were then filed against him adding that matter related to every matter of health should not be dragged to the court. The chief justice further observed that apparently, appointments have been made in the sector of KP on nepotism. Meanwhile, the court after disposing of the matter of transferring from PHC to Islamabad High Court, directed the Peshawar High Court to decide the matter within three months by an available bench. As per the case, Prof Dr Mustafa Iqbal, head of the Department of Ophthalmology in KTH, had challenged the reappointment of Board of Governors of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in the Peshawar High Court in 2018 and the court had suspended the BoG of the Khyber Teaching hospital with the observation that it was reconstituted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government against the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It had directed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secretary Health to look after the affairs of the BoG of the Medical and Teaching Institute Khyber Teaching Hospital. The bench had suspended the BoG comprising its chairman Dr Faisal Sultan and members Shah Jehan, Mohsin and Dr Mian Tahir Shah. The court had restrained the respondents from taking any adverse action against the petitioner. On Jun 6, 2018, as supreme court bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on account of unsatisfactory performance of the Board of Governors created for the management of different hospitals was dissolved and had directed the KP chief secretary to prepare and move a summary for the purposes of constituting new boards. Later on according to the counsel of the instant case, the KP government through a notification, reconstituted the Board of Governors with the same old members. The petitioner, Professor Dr Mustafa Iqbal again moved the PHC, challenging the reconstitution of the old members of the BoG, KTH and the court after declaring it null and void, stayed the BoG from functioning. Later on, the petitioners could not appeared before the PHC during the instant hearing as there was a general strike of the legal fraternity in Peshawar on February 6, 2019 and the court vacated the stay. Meanwhile, the petitioner later on raised objections over some four benches of the PHC for hearing the matter and finally moved to Supreme Court under Article 186 (A) of the constitution seeking transfer the matter to Islamabad High Court. The said Article relates to power of the Supreme Court to transfer cases which states that it in the interest of justice the apex court transfer any case, appeal or other proceedings pending before any high court to any other high court. On Tuesday, the court while disposing of the matter directed the Peshawar High Court to decide the instant petitions within three months by an available bench.