ISLAMABAD: The executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) claimed on Monday that a ‘corrupt’ sweeper at Polyclinic had him removed as head of the hospital with the assistance of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Dr Raja Amjad served as the acting executive director of Polyclinic for a few months before becoming the head of Pims.

He claimed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) at Parliament House that he was transferred because of a hospital sweeper.

Without mentioning former principal secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad by name, Dr Amjad said a bureaucrat currently facing a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) case in the Ashiana housing scheme had him removed from his last appointment at the request of a sweeper and other corrupt elements in Polyclinic.

Dr Amjad claimed he was removed because he took action against the sweeper and his accomplices, who had been working with various contractors. “All of a sudden I was removed through a fax,” he said.

The committee met on Monday to discuss issues facing Pims and the need for a new healthcare facility in the capital.

During a presentation to the committee, Dr Amjad said efforts were being made by utilising the available resources to improve service delivery. Major steps have been taken, such as upgrading emergency departments where emergency patients are being provided medicines for free, in the last four months, he said.

However, the medicine budget should be increased from Rs208.75 million to Rs625m to provide free medicine to all patients.

Extra stretchers and wheelchairs have also been arranged for the emergency department, he said, and directions have been painted on the floors and walls to guide patients to various rooms and wards in the hospital.

The committee praised the work of the Pims management but said the 1,150-bed hospital is overburdened and requires more funding.

Briefing the committee on the hospital’s dysfunctional liver transplant centre, Dr Amjad said a PC-I to upgrade the existing facility has been submitted to CADD for a supplementary grant of Rs603.94m, but the cost of the project has been reduced toRs500m and it has been reflected in the Public Sector Development Programme as an unapproved project.

He demanded Rs603m as a supplementary grant for three years so work can begin immediately. The committee recommended the allocation of funding as soon as possible in this regard.

The Pims executive director’s presentation before the committee showed that the overcrowded hospital received 1.25m patients in its outpatient department between 2017-18 but 1,426 of its 4,190 sanctioned posts from grades 1 to 21 are vacant.

The data shows that there are 51 sanctioned grade 20 posts of which 21 are vacant, as are 51 out of 84 grade 19 posts. Similarly, 210 grade 18 posts, 391 grade 17 posts and 337 grade 16 posts are vacant.

The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill

The committee meeting was also supposed to take up a bill moved by Senator Samina Saeed on Monday, but was displeased by the absence of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) director general. Committee chairman Senator Dr Ashok Kumar deferred the bill until the next committee meeting and said the FDE director general should be issued a notice for his presence and the bill.

Senate Saeed’s bill seeks to amend the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act to include a special mechanism for the education of children with dyslexia, a learning disorder manifested by difficulty learning to read, write or spell despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and socio-cultural opportunity.

In the bill, she has also called for dyslexia screenings for all children at the time of admission.

The committee meeting attended by senators Yousaf Badini, Asad Ali Khan, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Sajjad Hussain Turi and Mohammad Shafiq Tareen.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2018