PESHAWAR: The doctors employed through Public Service Commission as regular employees of government are protesting over diversion of their budgetary-sanctioned posts to institutional workers on fixed pay.

They said that diversion of the posts was unlawful as status of any cadre of employees could not be changed without legislation.

The PTI government implemented Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015, under which nine hospitals and their affiliated colleges were run though Board of Governors (BoG).

However, most of the MTIs have been relieving the civil servants and appointing contractual persons on their positions that is reducing chances of promotion of government servants because they get to next grade under a four-tier formula on the basis of the strength of posts in different grades.

Say status of any cadre of employees can’t be changed without legislation

“About 450 posts have been converted by the MTIs during the past four years. On posts of medical officers, even non-doctors are being hired and they are paid from the amount exclusively meant for civil employees in the budget book,” said a doctor.

A notification of health department, issued in March 2013, says that posts cannot be diverted to other cadres for any purpose.

The Doctors said that the MTIs relieved civil servants but retained their salary budget on which people were hired on ado basis.

Three years ago, health department had strictly warned MTIs against this practice and instructed that salary budget of the civil servants should be surrendered when they were transferred to the department.

According to the law, the respective BoG at the MTIs is empowered to make recruitments from its own budget. However, the doctors recruited through Public Service Commission were transferred out without their salary budget.

The posts of general and administrative cadre doctors are non-practicing, therefore, they bank on their salaries for all their family expenses.

The only increase they get when they go to the next grade.

Dr Amir Taj Khan, president of Provincial Doctors Association, said that KP Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health had taken notice of their grievances recently and sought opinion from law department regarding changing the status of government’s jobs into contractual ones.

“The agenda is to privatise the health system and do away with permanent employees and their pension and other benefits after retirement,” he said.

Dr Amir said that the architect of the law, Dr Nausherwan Burki, lived in the US but acted at the behest of IMF to cut down jobs and deploy ad hoc employees due to which doctors working under the health department were concerned about their careers.

In February, Khyber Teaching Hospital converted 116 posts of doctors in BPS-17, 18, 19 and 20 to MTIs. Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex are no exception where civil servants are being sent out. Latest attempt is underway to abolish sanctioned positions in MTI Dera Ismail Khan and hire assistant and associate professors.

“There is no provision in MTIRA to convert post of one cadre to another by BoG. We have conveyed proofs to the government that not only civil servant positions were scrapped illegally but the manner in which people were hired was fraught with irregularities,” said Dr Amir.

He said that health department found irregularities in appointments in MTIs on Supreme Court’s directives, but no action was taken.

“The Supreme Court of Pakistan has also taken notice of irregularities in employment by MTIs in May 2016 but the directives of apex court have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2019