PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued a stay order against the appointment of principal to the public sector Khyber Girls Medical College Peshawar and sought comments from the relevant board of governors on the matter.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Ghazanfar Ali fixed Feb 24 for the next hearing into a petition jointly filed by two senior faculty members of the KGMC, and asked the BoG concerned to file reply to it by then.

The petition is filed by Dr Ameenul Haq, head of the department of microbiology, and Dr Ameer Mohammad of the department of biochemistry, who have challenged the qualification given for the post of principal/dean in a recent advertisement given by the BoG.

Farhan Tariq, lawyer for the petitioners, said the qualification mentioned for a candidate for the post of principal/dean was that he or she should be an MRCP or FRCP, whereas his clients had done MPhil, which was much higher qualification than the one mentioned in the advertisement.

Two teachers move PHC against qualification required for the post

He said his clients fulfilled the qualification prescribed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and that the government couldn’t suggest anything beyond that qualification.

The lawyer said even under the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, the PMDC rules had to be followed in such matters.

He said the principal should be chosen from among senior KGMC professors and not from outsiders.

The lawyer said MRCP or FRCP was a sort of diploma, whereas MPhil was a much higher qualification.

The respondents in the petition are chairman of the Hayatabad Medical Complex BoG, the PMDC, provincial government through chief secretary and provincial health secretary.

TRANSFER ORDER SUSPENDED: A Peshawar High Court bench consisting of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali suspended the health department’s order to transfer the president of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar Nursing Association, Farrukh Jalil, to Kohat.

It sought explanation from provincial health secretary and LRH’s BoG regarding the claims made by the petitioner.

Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel, lawyer for the petitioner, said health professionals including doctors, paramedics and nursing staff recently began a protest against the dissolution of the Post-Graduate Medical Institute and other issues prompting the health department to order the transfer of his client as ‘revenge’.

He said under the law, his client was an employee of the Medical Teaching Institute LRH and the provincial government had no authority to order his transfer.

The lawyer said the only crime of the petitioner was that he had raised voice for the rights of his community and opposed the policies, which went against health sector in the province.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2016