PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision of handing over control of Nowshera Medical College (NMC) and its teaching hospital, Qazi Hussain Ahmad Teaching Hospital, to the Board of Governors of Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) has triggered questions.
Some of the faculty members in Nowshera termed it against the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Law 2015. However, officials of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said it was an interim arrangement, adding, the health department was working on selecting a separate Board of Governors (BoG) for NMC.
The government had recently dissolved the BoG of Nowshera Medical College, where all the board had members resigned three years ago and only a single member, Gulrez Hakim Khan, a contractor by profession, ran the two institutions as chairman of the BoG.
Gulrez Hakim Khan had taken certain controversial decisions during his tenure without taking other members of the BoG into confidence.
According to officials, Gulrez Hakim Khan could face serious repercussions of his decisions in future if the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or the next government took notice of the mismanagement, misuse of power as well as violation of merit in key appointments.
The provincial government had planned two years ago to dissolve the BoG, but couldn’t do so due to litigation in the courts.
It is believed Gulrez Hakim Khan had strong connections and every time the government made plans to get rid of him he managed to get a stay order from the court and continued as chairman BoG.
He was also believed to have developed good contacts in the provincial health department and officials there would inform him about any such move of the government.
According to officials, the government had received solid proofs that one official appointed by the chairman BoG on a key position in violation of the the MTI Law had later unlawfully recruited more than 30 people of his family, including his daughters, son-in-law, nephews and relatives. Also, the officials said there were allegations that a number of positions were sold in the two institutions in Nowshera and the provincial government most likely will order a high level inquiry of irregularities committed there.
“Some of the PTI leaders in Nowshera used to protect the chairman BoG for their own vested interest. They opposed an independent inquiry there even though almost all decisions of the single-member BoG were stated to be against the MTI Law,” said a government official.
Pleading anonymity, he said the medical college and the teaching hospital were given to the BoG of Bacha Khan Medical College and Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) for a short time, adding, Nowshera would soon have its own BoG.
He said dozens of employees recruited unnecessarily in the past two years against merit could be sent home if an independent inquiry was conducted.
He said the board should restore some of the employees, including secretary BoG, who were recruited after fulfilling all formalities but still Gulrez Hakim removed them without consent of the BoG. According to the officials, Gulrez Hakim Khan had appointed the hospital director without fulfilling the codal formalities.
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