Court halts new appointments under MTI

Islamabad : Hearing a petition against implementation of Medical Teaching Institutes (MTI) Ordinance, the Islamabad Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday ordered a halt to all new appointments under the new ordinance, and instructed that the court be informed before making any such appointment.

The court also directed that the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) be made a party in the petition and ordered that no action be taken against the existing staff of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), who have been resisting the implementation of MTI for two months now.

The court is said to have expressed annoyance over the absence of any official of the MTI-instituted Board of Governors (BoG) despite a notice warranting their attendance. The case was adjourned till February 22, with the Executive Director (ED) of PIMS also having been ordered to appear in the next hearing. It is pertinent to mention that the important seat of ED PIMS has been lying vacant ever since the retirement of Dr. Anser Maxood on January 14; the Ministry of National Health Services has not appointed an ED owing to the implementation of MTI, under which Dr. Anser has been appointed as the hospital’s director. “The fact that the court has ordered the ED of PIMS to also appear on the next hearing might now compel the Ministry to appoint an ED,” a protesting employee of PIMS predicted.

Meanwhile, PIMS employees continued their protest on the 60th day, lauding the IHC decision barring the BoG from new recruitments. They urged the government to withdraw the Ordinance in toto.

The Chairman of the Grand Health Alliance (GHA) Dr. Asfandyar Khan reiterated that the protest would continue till the demands of PIMS employees are met. He said patients are being exorbitantly charged under MTI at the School of Dentistry. The Spokesperson of GHA Dr. Hyder Abbasi termed the conversion of a government hospital into a corporate body in a welfare state as being the “biggest injustice of our times,” and urged the government to review its decision. Dr. Faiz Khan said we will not accept MTI in any form, and soon protests will erupt all over the country.