LAHORE: As many as 36 retired and serving doctors of Punjab aspire to the top slot of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) as the four-year tenure of vice chancellor Prof Khalid Masood Gondal will expire in June.

Some highly experienced heads of the government teaching institutes are among those who have applied for the slot.

Former Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, chairman Prof Farid Ahmad Khan, Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (P-HOTA) Director General Prof Asad Aslam Khan (former KEMU VC), Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Principal Prof Mohammad Al-Fareed Zafar, former Children’s Hospital Medical Director Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathor and former KEMU registrar Prof Irshad Hussain Qureshi are prominent among them.

Similarly, KEMU VC Prof Khalid Masood Gondal and Fatima Jinnah Medical University VC Prof Aamir Zaman Khan have also applied for the coveted seat.

An official said other senior doctors had also applied for the slot but the controversies may create issues for them. One of them had been arrested in the entrance test leak scandal of a medical university while another was removed as principal of a medical college.

A senior doctor of the KEMU who also applied for the slot is facing allegations of getting promotion as professor on the basis of forged documents. Yet another was serving as principal of a medical college and at the same time holding another important position of a medical university.

The official said one of the women candidates and two other doctors were said to be very close to the PML-N top leaders and they could give a tough time to the other competitors.

Some senior doctors have simultaneously applied for the position of vice chancellor of more than one government medical university of the province.

The Punjab government has advertised the top slots of the University of Health Sciences, the Fatima Jinnah Medical University, the Rawalpindi Medical University, the Faisalabad Medical University and the KEMU.

The official said some candidates had ‘ties’ with the power elites of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and its ally PML-Q and they were expecting to use their influence to become the VC of the KEMU. He said those who were close to the PML-N were earlier reluctant to contest for the seat but they later entered the race and geared up efforts to clinch the post.

Meanwhile, as the search committee which is supposed to conduct interviews of the candidates for the KEMU VC had been formed by Usman Buzdar, the health department higher-ups may delay the process till the formation of the provincial government.

The search committee comprises ex-professor of pathology Dr Saima Haq, ex-head of Punjab Institute of Cardiology Prof Mohammad Azhar, ex-civil servant Kazi Afaq Ahmad, former Allama Iqbal Medical College principal Prof Mahmood Shaukat and the secretary Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education Department, Punjab. It was notified on Feb 22 when the nominations were sent by the health department in consultation with then Punjab health minister Prof Dr Yasmin Rashid.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2022