KARACHI: Expressing surprise over the management of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) for allowing its well-paid doctors to practice privately on the premises of the health facility and also questioning its funding, the Sindh High Court has directed the provincial finance secretary to file the complete record of funds provided to hospital during the last five years.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar also summoned the NICVD executive director Dr Nadeem Qamar on Sept 20 along with a report and documentary proof showing the salaries of all the doctors and managerial officers working across the province.

The bench also directed him to come up with details whether all the doctors of NICVD, including himself, were receiving non-practicing allowance.

When the bench took up for hearing a petition challenging the appointment of a management consultant in NICVD, it was informed that the health facility was being funded by the provincial government.

However, the NICVD claimed that it was an autonomous body having its own resources and being regulated through an independent board, the bench in its order said.

It noted that at this juncture, the picture was not clear regarding the status of the NICVD whether it came in public or private sector.

The court questioned whether the hospital was running its affairs on its own or being completely funded by the Sindh government.

“It has also been surfaced that the doctors, appointed on different posts of NICVD and drawing huge salaries, have been allowed to practice at the hospital privately and yet it is to be examined whether they are also allowed to practice out of the health facility,” it added.

The bench said that these questions required answers particularly when the NICVD was claiming that it was providing free-of-cost services to public.

The lawyer for the NICVD’s executive director argued that the petition had become infructuous as the management consultant was no more in service.

The bench said that the lawyer was at liberty to file such a statement.

Two employees of the NICVD, one of whom was fired later, had approached the SHC in 2019 stating that a management consultant was appointed illegally as he had no qualification for such a post while neither advertisement for the post was published nor a recruitment committee was constituted.

In a previous hearing, the executive director, one of the respondents in the petition, in his comments stated that the relevant laws were not applicable in the present case since no government grant was involved for the salary of the management consultant as the same was being paid from NICVD donation/welfare and self-generated funds.

The National Accountability Bureau is also investigating the management of the NICVD including its executive director and several senior officials of the hospital for alleged illegalities, illegal appointments and kickbacks in procurement during 2014 to 2020.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2021