LAHORE: Two recent incidents involving senior doctors have created unrest in the King Edward Medical University (KEMU).

The administrative and academic affairs of the premier medical varsity have been affected by the back-to-back incidents during the last 10 days, an official told Dawn.

He said the first incident took place on July 25 last when KEMU Treasurer Prof Saqib Sohail, chairman of the Department of Physiology, and lawyer Faizan Chohan came to blows in the office of vice chancellor Prof Khalid Masood Gondal. The two men also exchanged harsh words and hurled threats at each other over issuing notices to the medical students by Prof Sohail, the official said.

Prof Sohail later brought the matter to the notice of the VC saying the lawyer came to the varsity and attacked him after his rival faculty member Dr Naqshab Chaudhry, professor of chemistry, provoked him (lawyer) against the complainant. Prof Sohail said all he had done was raise the issue of a fake certificate of Prof Naqshab who nursed a grudge against him and brought the lawyer to “teach me a lesson”.

On finding the KEMU management reluctant to take action against Prof Naqshab and the lawyer, Prof Sohail approached the Gowalmandi police and had a case registered against the colleague and the lawyer.

In the FIR, he alleged that the lawyer impersonating an employee of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had called him on June 10 and threatened him for issuing notices to some of the students. The lawyer, he said, interfered in the administrative affairs of the KEMU.

Later, Chohan along with Prof Naqshab came to the office of the vice chancellor and attacked him, he said.

The lawyer, on the other hand, also filed an application with police alleging that Prof Sohail was equipped with a pistol and hurled life threats at him near Old Anarkali Bazaar.

The KEMU VC finally constituted a disciplinary committee and a tribunal to ascertain the facts. The disciplinary committee was headed by Prof Rafia (anatomy) while Prof Rana Dilawaiz Nadeem was made chairman of the four-member fact-finding tribunal. The crisis worsened when Prof Sohail appeared before the tribunal and expressed his no-confidence on the panel.

He also uploaded his decision at the academic council forum and warned that he would highlight the corruption of the varsity if he was removed from the position of treasurer. He later proceeded on official leave.

The other members on the panel included professor of paediatric medicine Dr Haroon Hamid and professor of plastic surgery Mustahsin Bashir.

Prof Dilawaiz intimated to the KEMU head that he would not continue to work as chairman of the committee and requested that the task be assigned to any other suitable person.

The dust was yet to settle when another incident created unrest among the senior faculty members. The KEMU vice chancellor removed TB & Chest Medicine Department chairman Prof Saqib Saeed from the post at the behest of a “high official” who had expressed his strong displeasure for not attending a patient he referred to Prof Saeed a week ago. The patient was sent to the office of Prof Saeed who, however, went away on the pretext of attending an urgent meeting.

The “influential person” conveyed his displeasure to the KEMU VC who made Prof Saeed an OSD. The VC asked Prof Saeed that he would brought him back to office by managing the matter at a later stage.

Prof Gondal took this decision when the senior faculty members came to the rescue of their colleague and expressed their resentment over the treatment meted out to Prof Saeed. The senior doctor was eventually relieved from his duty and sent to the disposal of the secretary health after the KEMU VC got another call from the higher-ups, said the official.

The official said the two incidents disturbed the faculty.

KEMU VC Prof Khalid Masood Gondal told Dawn that the university was working to resolve all the issues.

“We have called an important meeting of deans’ committee -- a major forum -- on Monday (tomorrow) to take up the matter of tussle between Prof Saqib Sohail and Prof Naqshab and a lawyer’s involvement in the case,” he said. The meeting was called after Prof Sohail expressed his lack of confidence in the fact-finding panel, he said, adding that hopefully the issue would be resolved.

As for the case of removal of a doctor, Prof Gondal declined to comment.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2019