LAHORE: The Punjab government has appointed Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood principal of the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) against a vacant position.

The Health Department issued a notification on Friday. He will also look into the academic matters of under-graduation medical college – Ameeruddin Medical College.

A press release says Prof Mahmood passed FRCS in 1992 from the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow. He passed intercollegiate board in Neurosurgery FRCS (SN) from the UK in 1998 and is the only neurosurgeon of Health Department with this distinction.

According to the release, Prof Mahmood introduced many techniques of neurosurgery in Punjab and he is the pioneer of deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson’s disease in Pakistan. He is also project director of the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences at the Lahore General Hospital.

The development surprised many as Dr Mahmood was preferred over senior doctors for the post. The health department had forwarded three doctors from the pool of neurosurgeons to the chief minister on a search committee’s recommendations.

The three medics were finalised despite strong reservations of senior faculty members of the PGMI who said the search committee had ignored senior doctors of the institute.

Professor of ENT Dr Israr Ahmad, Professor of Surgery Dr Abdul Manan and Professor of Medicine Dr Ghiasun Nabi Tayyab were among the most senior teaching doctors of PGMI and on top of the seniority list of the institute.

A senior official, privy to the information, told Dawn initially the CM was reluctant to consider the panel for the post when he came to know about the violation of the seniority list. He said the CM had interviewed the three candidates on June 27 but delayed the selection as he wanted to give equal chances to those ignored and those who belonged to some other disciplines. Later on, he went for Prof Mahmood for the post.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2015

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