RAWALPINDI: The Punjab health department has imposed a cut on the pensions of a former principal and five other officials of the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) for purchasing machinery without proper specifications.

Besides, a former medical superintendent of the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) was also punished for the issuance of a fake house job certificate to a doctor.

The health department initiated an inquiry into the embezzlement charges against the former officials under the Punjab Employees’ Efficiency, Discipline And Accountability (PEEDA) Act 2006 for the installation of an elevator and 16 ventilators at the RMC without following the approved specifications.

It was alleged that the RMC principal and the other officials purchased 16 defective ventilators and a lift without following the specifications approved by the provincial government.

Soon after the installation, the machinery developed faults, forcing the health department to start an investigation.

Upon completion of the inquiry, the chief minister’s inspection committee, led by Farasat Ali Khan, who is also a member of the Punjab Planning and Development Commission,

called the former RMC officials to Lahore on August 17 and informed them about the sentences.

According to the sentences, the former RMC principal, Dr Musadaq Khan, Dr Ghulam Sarwar Gondal and accountant Tariq Mehmood lost 20 per cent of their pensions each.

The committee forfeited two increments of Dr Rai Mohammad Asghar, Dr Shaukat and Dr Shamsur Rehman.

The other case related to the issuance of a fake house job certificate to Dr Mohammad Bilal, son of former RMC principal Dr Musadaq Khan, by the ex-HFH medical superintendent, Mohammad Hussain Baloch. A five per cent deduction was made on the pension of Dr Baloch.

The certificate was issued to Dr Khan while he was in the US. The health department took notice of the matter and formed an investigation committee.

When contacted, Dr Musadaq Khan neither admitted nor denied the decision of the committee. “It is not in my knowledge,” he said.

Dr Musadaq Khan is the main witness in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case as he conducted an operation on Ms Bhutto when she was brought to the Central General Hospital (now renamed after Ms Bhutto) after the bomb and gun attack at Liaquat Bagh on December 27, 2007.

His father Dr Sadiq Khan also tried to save the life of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan when he was brought to the hospital after being shot during a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh in 1951.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2015

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