SHC suspends notification of appointment of managing consultant in NICVD

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday took exception to the appointment of a managing consultant in the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) without any advertisement and lawful procedure, and suspended the notification with regard to the appointment till further orders.

Hearing a petition against the appointment of a managing consultant in the NICVD, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui observed that prima facie neither was the advertisement for the subject post published in newspapers nor was a recruitment committee constituted.

The high court observed that the appointment appeared to be a mockery of the law as it was made without any transparent and lawful procedure. The bench remarked that the NICVD was one of the few facilities providing health services to the citizens of Karachi as well as the entire province but despite being such a crucial facility, the management consultant was hired in such a manner.

Petitioner Mohammad Khalid had submitted that the appointment of managing consultant Haider Awan was made in 2015 without adopting the due process of law and no advertisement was published in any newspaper, which was a mandatory requirement of the law. He had alleged that the respondent had no consultancy experience nor he owned any registered consultancy firm, and requested the high court to declare the appointment as illegal.

The NICVD submitted in comments that the respondent’s contractual services were acquired in furtherance of the decisions taken in the board meetings of the NICVD in May 2015 and after consideration of the respondent’s proficiency, experience and satisfactory work, the said contract was extended from time to time.

The SHC was informed that the remuneration of the respondent was directed to be paid from the NICVD donation/welfare and/or self-generation funds in terms of the Section 41 of the NICVD Service Regulations (revised) 2016-17, and not from the public exchequer.

The bench observed that the petition was pending since 2019 but neither the NICVD nor the managing consultant could earlier file their respective counter-affidavits or para-wise comments and only after hectic efforts, para-wise comments had been filed by the NICVD before the court on Thursday, which were taken on record.

The high court inquired the respondent’s counsel as to what process and mechanism was adopted for the appointment of the managing consultant. It was said that it had been candidly conceded that there was no advertisement published in this regard since the market for such a post was a small one, and the information about the post was conveniently communicated to interested persons.

The bench observed that the court was not sure as to how awareness was enlarged to the public who may have been interested in the appointment on such a post. The NICVD counsel submitted that an interview was conducted for the appointment of the managing consultant. The SHC observed that prima facie, neither was any advertisement for the subject post published in newspapers nor was any recruitment committee constituted.

The high court suspended the notification of the managing consultant’s appointment from now onwards and observed that he would not claim any benefits as being the management consultant of the NICVD till the next date of hearing. The bench observed that the respondent, in case he so desired, might file para-wise comments/counter-affidavit before the next date of hearing, which may be fixed after two weeks. The counsel for the NICDV also raised the question of the maintainability of the petition, to which the high court observed that such a question would be addressed on the next hearing.