ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Wednesday expressed its reservations at the human resource deficit in the National Institute of Health (NIH) which had 350 positions vacant.

The committee members termed this “a major setback” which negatively impacted the quality of services.

The committee met under the chairmanship of Senator Dr Mohammad Humayun Mohmand at the Parliament House.

“One-third of the strength of the NIH is missing,” the committee chairman said.

Members told vacant seats to be filled in three months

The NIH representatives informed the committee members that the delay in appointments was caused on account of the new Act and regulations, however 10 days ago, regulations and advertisements were approved.

Appointments will be made in three months, the NIH officials said.

They informed the committee that genomic sequencing centres for infectious diseases were established and over 75 cases of the Omicron variant had been diagnosed through genome sequencing till Dec 28.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Dr Faisal Sultan appreciated the progress of the NIH during and after the pandemic. The committee members also acknowledged the work of the NIH and believed it to be a great contribution to the health sector.

During the briefing, the committee was informed that a new Act had been introduced along with a new board of directors (BoDs).

The matter related to steps taken by the government to substantially increase number of seats in medical colleges for students of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and Balochistan in pursuance of directives issued by the prime minister was also taken up.

The committee was informed by Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) that it had no objection to any quota of seats established by the federal government subject to the said admission not being “over and above” the allocated strength of each college and the students admitted.

The PMC further informed members that since public colleges were owned by the provincial government, henceforth, any quota for public colleges is to be issued in consultation with it, if deemed necessary by the federal government through its notified universities.

“It is for the provincial government to implement any quota notified by the federal government”, a PMC representative said, adding “The PMC is not the admission agency for admissions to public medical and dental colleges and therefore, has no role to play in such admissions or enforcement of the quota”.

The PMC has already enhanced 793 seats in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to accommodate all quotas including the Higher Education Commission (HEC) scholarship project.

The matter regarding regularisation of contract employees of Federal Government Hospital was also taken up. The secretary, Ministry of Health informed the committee that the ministry sent a letter to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) about postponement and rescheduling of the test after some time, owing to an application submitted by contractual employees of the hospital, citing the reason of preoccupancy with Covid-19 duties at the moment.

The committee was informed that the grievance of contractual employees with regards to regularisation of employees without examination through the FPSC is not applicable as per law and shall only be taken up as per procedure, however, on the request of chairman of the committee, the secretary said that he will speak to the chairman FPSC on personal grounds so a way forward could be granted to these 19 contractual employees.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2021