MIANWALI: Many cases of alleged illegal promotions in the Mianwali health department have come to light, exposing corruption and mismanagement during the tenure of Dr Hussain Ahmed Madni as chief executive officer of the district health authority. In all these cases, the health department officials were promoted out of the way in sheer violation of the rules and regulations.

In each promotion letter, copies available with Dawn, the authorities referred to a letter of the director general health Punjab, dated April 22, 2015, titled ‘Implementation of 4-Tier Service Structure of Allied Health Professionals’ but ignored the instructions in it, inflicting losses to the public exchequer by giving promotions with back dates along all financial benefits.

One such case is that of Muhammad Farooq, insect collector BPS-5. He was promoted as senior technician in BPS-14 on May 11, 2018 and again as chief technician in BPS-16 on the same day (May 11). He got the promotion with effect from Nov 24, 2016 and was allowed to enjoy all the back benefits.

In a more appalling case, Ghulam Abbas, also insect collector BPS-5 and Saifur Rehman, sanitary supervisor BPS-5, were promoted to BPS-16 also on May 11, 2018, with effect from Nov 24, 2011.

Zafar Iqbal, Mehboob Alam and Ikramullah, sanitary patrol BPS-2, were directly promoted to the commercial disease control (CDC) supervisors in BPS-9 on May 7, 2018. It is interesting to note that the basic qualification for the post is Matric (Science) with a diploma from the Punjab Medical Faculty, Lahore, but none of the three promoted officials had this diploma.

These amazing cases don’t end here. Two other officials, Muhammad Raees Khan and Muhammad Fayaz Khan, senior technician (BPS-12), were promoted to BPS-14 on Oct 18, 2017 with effect from Feb 2, 2012. What’s more surprising regarding these two cases is that when the promotion letters for the officials were issued, Dr Madni was working as the medical superintendent of the TB Hospital Sargodha and was not yet posted as the CEO Health Mianwali.

The case of Rizwan Amir, junior lab technician, is also interesting. He was recruited on a contract basis for three years on Nov 25, 2008 and posted at the Rural Health Centre Wan-Bhachran. He resigned from post on June 1, 2010 and the resignation was accepted on Sept 28, 2010. He filed an appeal for reinstatement before the then DCO Mianwali which was rejected Feb 28, 2012.

His writ petition before the Lahore High Court (LHC) was also dismissed. Six years later, Rizwan Amir submitted an application for reinstatement once again and appeared before CEO Health on June 26, 2018.

The CEO reinstated him and posted him as junior lab technician at the RHC Daudkhel on July 4, 2018. Mr Amir has got a diploma from the Skill Development Council, Islamabad, which is not acceptable for the post.

When contacted by Dawn, Mianwali CEO health Dr Latif Sahi expressed surprise at the abovementioned promotion cases, saying it all happened before his posting. He said he would look into the cases.

Former CEO health Dr Hussain Ahmed Madni categorically denied that he had not issued orders for promotion of any of the abovementioned officials.

Expressing ignorance of the cases, he claimed that his signature was very simple and the officials at the CEO office must have forged it for fake promotion letters. He said he would contact the current CEO health of Mianwali to request him to cancel all such promotion orders as were not issued by him.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2018