LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday summoned the director general of the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (PHOTA) Prof Dr Faisal Masood to explain his appointment.

Known orthopedic surgeon Prof Dr Amir Aziz had filed a petition challenging his appointment through a public interest petition.

During the hearing, Advocate Bilal Ahmad appeared on behalf of Masood and sought time to file reply to the petition.

However, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal observed that two hearings had already been lapsed with adjournment requests and the court would not let the proceedings delay further. The judge directed Dr Masood to appear in person before the court on Sept 10 along with the written reply.

Earlier, Advocate Nasir Qureshi argued on behalf of the petitioner that the post of director general/administrator of PHOTA had never been advertised by the government, as required under the rules.

He said the respondent (Masood) himself had advertised the post when he had additional charge of PHOTA DG being vice chancellor of King Edward Medical University. He said the terms and conditions including eligibility criteria were finalized and advertised by Prof Masood himself, which, in fact, was required to be done by the government.

The counsel pointed out that even as per advertised terms and conditions, the respondent was not eligible to apply for the post.

He further stated that services of the respondent, a retired government servant, were not indispensable, and if the post was advertised by the competent authority there would have been numerous eligible candidates for the post.

The lawyer asked the court to set aside the appointment of Masood as PHOTA DG and order the government to appoint a qualified person in a transparent manner.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2018