LAHORE: The Board of Governors of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) is expected to elect its new chairman by a show of hands at a meeting on Thursday (today).

The emergent meeting of the BoGs was called in compliance with the order of Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar who had ordered the health authorities to replace incumbent chairman Ishaq Dar by any suitable candidate within three days of his direction.

According to the UHS’ Act, the section 23 (1) of UHS Ordinance 2002 says, “The Chairman of the Board shall be elected by all the members of the Board from amongst the non-official members at its first meeting.”

According to the present composition of the BoGs, there are total four non-official and three official members, an official told Dawn. One of the BoGs non-official members, orthopedic surgeon Prof Aamir Aziz, had already tendered his resignation as its member citing various reasons. His resignation was not accepted by the competent authority, he said, adding that the doctor refused to attend Thursday’s meeting.

Of the three other non-official members, Seemi Aziz, the former president of the First Women Bank, is also abroad.

Two others – former ambassador Seema Elahi Baloch and former UHS vice chancellor Prof Hussain Mubashar Malik have given their confirmation to attend the meeting. Of the official members, the health secretaries of finance and health department and the incumbent vice chancellor of the UHS will also be present there.

The official said the chances of Prof Hussain Mubashar Malik to be elected new chairman of the BoGs are high as he was the only among others who had served the varsity for a long time.

The newly elected chairman would serve for the remaining (almost three months) period as the tenure of the chairman would expire in December this year.

According to the laid down procedure, one of the members of the BoGs would nominate the name of new chairman of the Board while the others would endorse him by raising hands, he said.

Speaking to Dawn, Prof Javed Akram said the election of the new chairman of the BoGs figured high on the agenda of the meeting. He said the BoGs had full quorum required for the election of the chairman and hopefully the process would be done successfully.

“We have also added 25 other agenda items in the list to get approval from the BoGs for the pending programmes in the UHS as inordinate delay in this regard had inflicted major dent on the varsity,” he said.

The other important issues included approval of the budget, shifting of the UHS departments to new campus in Kala Shah Kaku, infectious control programme, hiring on vacant slots, etc.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2018