September 15, 2003	Monday	Rajab 17, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Sept 14: The new board of management (BoM) of autonomous hospitals established a few months ago after replacement of the former BoM due to controversies, which had virtually brought its working to a standstill, has not yet started working. A little has changed in these hospitals where some hidden hand is again at work to put things off the track.

Sources in the board said some of the members had recently threatened to resign in case their demand of replacing a medical superintendent was not met. The BoM had earlier transferred the medical superintendent who was later reinstated on the order of the Punjab government.

Prima facie they were right in their demand, but if the entire scenario is taken into consideration they were wrong. The provincial government has yet to notify the powers of the BoM and rules of business of the hospitals, in the absence of which it is purely the provincial health secretary’s prerogative to appoint or transfer a medical superintendent.

This was quite evident to the BoM at the time when they first took the decision and even when they threatened to resign in protest. But, the question arises as to what forced the BoM to go ahead with something that it was not yet authorised to do and later press for its implementation.

One may easily get hint of the situation if the chain of events following the transfer of the MS were closely followed. The decision was taken in the late hours of the last working day of the week and officials got the decision implemented the very same evening in the absence of the outgoing MS.

It was because of the very unseen hand in the autonomous hospitals that wanted to create an administrative chaos. This factor has got considerable influence on the board and might have induced it to take the wrong step.

It may be mentioned that the former board, headed by Air Marshal Arshad Chaudhry, was also packed off in somewhat similar circumstances when the former board chief resigned because of his inability to get another MS transferred.

The same factor has now started creating unrest among the students of the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) by provoking them to protest against the University of Health Sciences (UHS).

The RMC students remained silent when the students of the King Edward’s Medical College, Fatima Jinnah Medical College and other medical institutions were protesting against affiliation of their colleges with the new university.

All of a sudden, when the exams are about to begin, it has dawned upon them that affiliation with the UHS would not be advantageous for them and they resorted to protest.

The same factor had managed a ‘coup’ against the former RMC principal Dr Shahnaz Aftab and got her removed. Later, they manoeuvred to prevent her from being reappointed as principal when the new setup took over, though she was the senior most.