ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges is going to hear a privilege motion on Monday (today)against the head of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for failing to provide admission to a Covid-19 patient referred by the National Assembly (NA) speaker and refusing to attend a meeting at the speaker’s residence.

The mover of the motion MNA Ali Nawaz Awan said if a person who belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and referred by the NA speaker “could not get admission what would be the situation of the general public”.

However, a senior official of Pims said through a phone call from the speaker office the hospital was directed to vacate a VIP room for the patient. But the caller was told that it was not possible to give an extra protocol to a patient during a crisis.

According to the agenda item, the privilege motion is regarding “non-cooperation of the director Pims with the honourable MNAs regarding admission in the hospital for oxygen/ventilator for Covid-19 patients and not attending the meeting by the director Pims under the chairmanship of Honourable NA Speaker on 7th April.”

On April 7, Speaker Asad Qaiser expressed his displeasure over Pims management’s unprofessional response to tackle a Covid-19 case. He remarked that the management needs to be more responsive.

He had failed to admit Covid-19 patient referred by NA speaker

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting anonymity, said on April 2 a call was received from the NA speaker’s office and the hospital was advised to vacate a VIP room for the patient who was known to the speaker.

“We informed the caller that private rooms were usually used as VIP rooms but due to Covid-19 all rooms were already converted into the corona wards and it was not possible to remove a patient from there and use it as a VIP room. The reply annoyed the speaker office and then we received a call that the director hospital Dr Raja Shafiq Sarwar should come to the residence of the NA speaker as a meeting will be held there. We told the caller that there were two patients of Covid-19 in the family of Dr Sarwar and requested that Pims Joint Executive Director Dr Minhajus Siraj, who is the second most senior officer of Pims, would attend the meeting. However, we were told by the speaker office that Dr Sarwar should come in person,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks about merit and transparency but his MNAs demand protocol,” he said.

The mover of the privilege motion Ali Nawaz Awan, who belongs to PTI Islamabad, while talking to Dawn said that it was unfortunate that the patient was not admitted to Pims.

“It is not correct that the NA speaker wanted a VIP room for the patient. It was requested to admit the patient but Pims admin refused by saying that there was no bed. Later, Mr Asad Qaiser himself went to Polyclinic and got the patient admitted there,” he said.

Mr Awan said on April 2, there were 41 beds vacant out of the total 142 at Pims. He said at Polyclinic 19 out of 37 beds were available.

IHRA chief sacked

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Islamabad Health Regulatory Authority (IHRA) has been terminated from service.

According to a notification issued by IHRA, the board members had issued a show-cause notice and later held a hearing but the CEO did not bother to attend the hearing. The board, being the competent authority, has unanimously decided to terminate the services of the CEO.

CEO Dr Syed Ali Naqvi had conducted a raid at a hospital located in Bhara Kahu and objected to the Covid-19 vaccine management due to which he developed differences with the board members. Later, IHRA issued an apology to the hospital on behalf of the CEO.

However, the CEO has been removed on other allegations such as he remained on leave without informing the office, used employees at his home, etc.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2021