January 11, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 20, 1427

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LAHORE, Jan 10: More than 600 posts of assistant and associate professors, full-fledged professors and senior registrars of provincial medical institutions have been lying vacant for the past seven years or so, it is learnt.

No palpable development has been made despite monstrous claims the health ministry has been making for the past four years.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the contract system introduced in 1998-99 on the direction of foreign donor agencies was primarily responsible for the vacant posts.

“The chief grievance of doctors is that there is no job security and promotion in the contract system,” they said, adding that the competent stuff was leaving for abroad to explore better opportunities. Interestingly, some officials of the health department had of late visited London for the selection of some cardiologists, they informed.

“Unavailability of such a large number of teaching staff is affecting the education of 14 medical institutions of the province and patients are bearing the brunt of the situation,” a senior professor said. He said unless the government allowed regular recruitments through the Punjab Public Service Commission, the situation would worsen.

Although the chief minister had recently promised to promote associate professors and making 50 per cent of the recruitments through the PPSC, there is no notification in sight.

Pakistan Medical Association Secretary-General Dr Azeemuddin Zahid said the government should not only recruit doctors on a permanent basis, but also provide them with lucrative incentives. The contract system might work in other professions, but in this case it proved a complete failure, he added.

Punjab Health Secretary Javed Malik was not available for comments over the issue.

The institutions are King Edward Medical University, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Fatima Jinnah Medical Colleges, Post-graduate Medical Institution (Lahore), Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Nishter Medical College, Multan Institute of Cardiology, Punjab Medical College (Faisalabad), Rawalpindi Medical College, Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Punjab Institute of Cardiology (Lahore), IPC and IPH (Lahore) and Shaikh Zayed (Lahore).

The sanctioned posts of assistant professors, associate professors, professors and senior registrars in these institutions are 602, 385, 326 and 387, respectively.