HYDERABAD, June 9: A grade-18 eye specialist, Dr Muneer Ahmed, whose services were terminated by the health department, has appealed to the Sindh governor and chief minister to reinstate him.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club on Wednesday, he claimed that he was terminated on false and baseless grounds by the Sindh health department. Dr Muneer said that he had done his post-graduation as an eye specialist from the Medical Institute Lahore in 1991 and had also done Master of Surgery course from the same institute.

He said that he cleared his FCPS part-I examination from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. He said that he had also served in the armed forces hospital Saudi Arabia as an eye specialist and received commendatory certificates.

Dr Muneer said that he was selected in grade-18 through the Sindh Public Service Commission but the Sindh health department had terminated his service on the false charges of "remaining absent from duty".

He said that his appeal was pending with the chief secretary for the last one year and he was running from pillar to post to get justice but in vain. He claimed that he had never remained absent from duty because he had gone to Saudi Arabia under the specific written orders of the Sindh government.

He said that when he returned to his own country his services were terminated on a fake show-cause notice. He said that the irony was that he was accused of going to Saudi Arabia on 15 days leave to perform Umrah and was marked absent after 15 days.

He said that he had never ever applied for any leave to perform Umrah but had gone to Saudi Arabia under the specific written orders of the Sindh health department. He also distributed copies of the notification (SOIII (SPL)MIC-DOC-SA 2000) by the health department government of Sindh.

Under the notification many doctors were granted one year extraordinary leave without pay ex-Pakistan with permission to join their assignment with the government of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia within 15 days of the issuance of said notification. Dr Muneer Ahmed said that how could he go for Umrah or even apply for it in view of this notification.

He also distributed copies of show-cause notice under which it had been mentioned that he was granted 15 days leave for performing Umrah and failed to report back and tendered his resignation from the government service. The doctor said that he had neither applied for leave to perform Umrah nor tendered his resignation.