PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Friday stopped the Bannu Medical Teaching Institute from continuing recruitment process of 120 male nurses against the posts for which earlier other persons had already been selected by the recommendation committee.

The bench of Justice Ijaz Anwar issued notices to the respondents including provincial chief secretary, Board of Governors of the MTI and the hospital director and others, directing them to explain their position over a writ petition jointly filed by around 30 of the candidates, who were earlier selected for the said posts but instead of appointing them a fresh advertisement was issued.

Next date for hearing the petition will be fixed later, but the court directed that till further orders the process of selecting fresh candidates against the said posts should be stopped.

Issues notices to chief secretary, BoG and hospital director

Advocate Arif Jan appeared for the petitioners including Mohammad Adnan and others and said that the Bannu MTI included three institutes namely Khalifa Gul Nawaz Hospital, the district headquarters hospital and Bannu Medical College.

He stated that in February 2018, an advertisement was published in newspapers for the recruitment of 120 male nurses in BPS-16. He added that the petitioners and several other candidates applied for the posts in the light of the advertisement.

Mr Jan said that after written tests and interviews, the petitioners and others were recommended by the recruitment committee for appointments against those posts in July 2018. In the meantime, he stated that the MTI’s Board of Governors was dissolved and a new board was constituted.

The counsel contended that instead of appointing the petitioners, the BoG published a fresh advertisement on Dec 20, 2018, seeking applications for the said 120 posts.

The counsel contended that no reason was assigned for publishing the fresh advertisement. He pointed out that the previous and fresh advertisements were one and the same and there was no logic behind issuing the fresh one. He contended that there was no justification to appoint the petitioners, who had already cleared the test and interview.

NOTICES: A bench of Justice Ijaz Anwar Khan issued notices to the deputy commissioners of Mardan and Kohat, asking them to give their viewpoint in five writ petitions challenging continuation in detention of some members of Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) under section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).

The bench fixed December 31 for next hearing of the petitions filed by the detainees named Sarbiland Khan and Sikander Khan of Mardan and Abid Hussain, Mamoor Khattak and Badshah Hayat of Kohat.

Advocates Gul Hussain Khilji, Amin Khattak Lachi, Shabir Hussain Gigyani and Asfandyar Khan represented the petitioners and contended that last month several members of TLP were taken into custody on the order of the respective deputy commissioners for a period of 30 days under section 3 of the MPO.

They stated that the said detentions orders expired on December 22, but the respective deputy commissioners extended their detention period for 30 more days.

Gul Hussain contended that in Mardan, the police station concerned had also registered an FIR against the members of TLP for staging a protest. He stated when an FIR had already been registered then how the detainees could be arrested under the MPO as well.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2018