PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the provincial health secretary and Khyber Teaching Hospital board of governors to respond to a woman doctor’s petition against the secretary over the alleged revocation of her appointment as an assistant professor to accommodate the wife of a serving bureaucrat.

While issuing the directions, a bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali ordered the maintaining of the status quo in the case until the next hearing.

The schedule of the next hearing will be announced afterwards.

The petitioner, Dr Naila Quratul Aeen Bukhari, claimed she was appointed assistant professor (gynecology) at Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar few months ago but the health secretary ordered her replacement with Dr Farzana Nawaz, the wife of a bureaucrat, after four months.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Khalid Rehman, said his client served on the post of assistant registrar (gynecology) at KTH.

He said two assistant professor posts in the KTH gynecology ward were announced, one a permanent and the other a temporary for three years.

The lawyer said his client applied for both the posts and that the relevant selection committee prepared separate merit lists for both the posts.

“In light of merit lists, the KTH Institutional Management Committee recommended senior registrar Dr Zubeda Akhtar for the post of permanent assistant professor and his client for the temporary post prompting the health department to notify appointments.

Khalid Rehman said the respondent, Dr Farzana Nawaz, who also served in the same hospital, had applied for the permanent post and not for temporary one.

He said four months after his client’s appointment, the health secretary illegally revoked her appointment order and appointed Dr Farzana to her position.

The lawyer said KTH was an autonomous institution and that the health secretary was not authorised to revoke an appointment and make new appointment in its place.

He said under the new administrative setup, KTH IMC had been made the Board of Governors, while the post of the hospital’s administrator had been abolished before appointing a medical director the head of the facility.

The lawyer requested the court to declare the secretary’s order illegal and order his client’s reinstatement as assistant professor.

PLEA BARGAIN ALLOWED: A local accountability court on Friday endorsed the plea bargain application of revenue officer Saeed Khan, who agreed to pay Rs20.4 million to the National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a corruption case.

The suspect, a patwari, was arrested by the NAB few months ago for possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income.

Few days ago, he submitted an application to the NAB for plea bargain in line with Section 25 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

The NAB chairman accepted the plea and referred it to the accountability court judge, Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, for approval.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2015

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