ABBOTTABAD, Sept 14: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad circuit bench on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to the provincial chief secretary and health secretary and two others in a contempt of court case filed by some doctors of the Ayub Medical Complex Hospital (AMCH).

The two-member bench comprising Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem took up for hearing two petitions filed by nine doctors.

The bench directed the provincial officials to explain reasons for not following the orders of the high court issued on May 15.

Two years back after the murder of a doctor of AMCH, Farooq Hilal, by advocate Sardar Moazzam, the students and teachers of the hospital set on fire the house of the alleged killer and observed a complete strike.

Later the NWFP government transferred nine doctors to various hospitals which was challenged by the doctors.

They said that they were employees of AMCH which was an autonomous body and the provincial government had no authority to transfer them.

The court in a previous order had cancelled the orders of the provincial government and relief was provided to the doctors but the orders of the court were not carried out by the government.

Legal notices were also served on the four respondents by the councils of the doctors on July 4, 2005 for early action but no action had been taken and doctors approached the court for implementation of orders.