February 15, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 26, 1428

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BAHAWALPUR, Feb 14: The Board of Management of the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College/Bahawal Victoria Hospital has been shown the door for not endorsing the provincial government’s decision to illegally appoint the QAMC principal, it is learnt.

Information gleaned by Dawn on Wednesday revealed that the defunct BoM, headed by Justice Muhammad Husain Sindhar (a former Lahore High Court judge), took strong exception to the illegal appointment of Prof Syed Ali Ajwad Shah Jaffri as the QMC principal.

According to section 7 of the Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act 9 of 2003, “the Punjab government shall appoint a principal out of a panel of three selects of the BoM”. However, the government overlooked the mandatory provision and appointed Dr Ajwad Ali out of nowhere, sources said.

They said the BoM immediately raised an objection and called out a meeting which unanimously described the appointment as illegal. The BoM had on Nov 4, 2006, asked the government through a memorandum to call the principal back to Lahore, but to no avail. On Nov 14, the board again pointed out in a communication with the government that the principal’s appointment was illegal and, therefore, it must be revoked.

Meanwhile, Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam filed a writ petition with the LHC’s Bahawalpur bench against the QMC principal. It was in response to his application to the LHC that the college BoM was made a party to the case. The board submitted before the court that the QMC principal’s appointment was illegal and negation of the government’s own act.

Later, the Punjab health department on Dec 12 advised the BoM to give up its contention and accept the appointment. However, the board during its last meeting on Dec 26 reiterated its stand and declined to reconcile in accordance with the government advice. This led to the dissolution of the BoM on Feb 12. It is pertinent to mention that the board was scheduled to complete its four-year term in three months.

When asked to comment on the dissolution of the board by the government, Justice Sindhar declined to offer his version. He, however, claimed that he had served the board on the personal desire of Chief Minister Pervaiz who rang him up twice for the acceptance of this honorary offer.

IUB: Dr Amanda Pilz, political officer, along with political adviser Zahir S Durrani of the American Consulate Lahore during their visit to the Islamia University Bahawalpur on Wednesday presented over 300 books to the central library.

The political officer praised the rare manuscripts of the holy Quran preserved in the library.

CASE: An ASI of the Samasatta police station and his two brothers-in-law were booked on Wednesday for allegedly raping a maid.