ISLAMABAD: Three years after the problem first arose; the matter of making appointments against 600 vacant posts at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) could not be addressed, even though the matter was also discussed in Senate.

For several reasons, including the upgrading of Pims to a medical university, lack of funds and a ban on appointments, 10 departments in the hospital are being run without heads and nine associate professor’s seats, which is a Basic Pay Scale (BPS) 19 post, are vacant.

The problem started during the PPP government in 2013, when parliament passed the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (Pims), Islamabad Bill 2013, which was moved by the then Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Nazar Mohammad Gondal.

After the bill was passed, Pims was upgraded to a medical university, the management of which was empowered to run the hospital and recruit staff.

The 600 posts in question remained vacant during the PPP government because of a lack of funds and could not be filled during the first year of the PML-N led government because of a ban on appointments.

A Pims official who requested not to be identified said the ban was lifted in 2014 following which the process of appointments was started.

“Seats were advertised and the university’s management started the process for appointments but the employees’ unions started protesting against the appointments and demanded they be made through CADD instead of by the university. Because of the protests, CADD intervened and the process of appointments was stopped,” he said.

Last year, Senator Sardar Mohammad Azam Khan Musakhel of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party through a calling attention notice in Senate demanded that all vacant posts at the hospital be filled immediately in order to improve performance and solve administrative issues in the hospital

The posts that are yet to be filled include those of for doctors, paramedics, nurses, security personnel, sanitary workers and other staff are yet to be filled.

According to documents available with Dawn, 10 departments at Pims are running without a head, which includes urology, gastroenterology, dermatology, pulmonology, ophthalmology, cardiology, plastic surgery, cardiac surgery, oncology and nephrology.

The documents also show that nine seats for associate professors are also vacant, which include the departments of urology, ENT, burns, pulmonology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, cardiology, cardiac surgery and oncology.

However, Pims Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Akram said that approval from CADD has been sought for making appointments against posts from BPS one to five and that efforts were being made to appoint staff on posts from BPS six to 19 through advertisements.

Dr Akram told Dawn he had met with secretary CADD this week and that a decision will soon be made if Pims will make the appointments through advertisements.

“The appointment committee will also include representatives from the Federal Public Service Commission, CADD and other departments,” he said.

“People are not getting proper treatment due to lack of staff and very important departments are being run without professors,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016