ISLAMABAD: The employees of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) on Thursday gave a two weeks’ ultimatum to the federal government to repeal the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Act.

The representatives of the employees at a press conference warned that they will start protests if the Act was not repealed in a fortnight.

Earlier, a meeting of the Grand Health Alliance (GHA) was held and attended by professors, consultants, medical officers, nurses, paramedics and gazetted and non-gazetted employees of the hospital.

Addressing the meeting, Dr Asfandyar Khan, Mohammad Nawaz Lali, Chaudhry Riaz Gujar, Saeed Jan Marwat, Chaudhry Zaheer, Professor Dr Mehboob Rehman, Ikramullah Khan and others demanded that the government should repeal the MTI Act.

In November 2020, President Dr Arif Alvi promulgated the MTI ordinance suggesting that the hospital will be run through a board of governors (BoG). According to the ordinance, the BoG will deal with all affairs of Pims.

The BoG members were appointed and notified by the Ministry of NHS on the recommendation of a search and nomination council. Though employees protested against the Ordinance but it sailed through the parliament.

Speaking at the news conference, GHA Chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan said the employees had unanimously decided that the MTI Act in Pims and Punjab should be repealed.

“We will not accept any amendment to the Act as we believe that the PTI government was misguided over the MTI and it has created problems for both medical fraternity and patients,” he said.

Dr Khan thanked Member National Assembly Noor Alam Khan, a dissident legislator of the PTI, who has moved a bill in the National Assembly to repeal the MTI.

“We demand that Minister for National Health Services (NHS) Abdul Qader Patel should pursue the bill and the government should own it and play its role to get it passed from both houses of parliament,” he said.

“We demand that the bill may be passed within two weeks and in case of any delay we will be left with no option but to use our right to protest. We request Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chairperson Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to take personal interest and get MTI and Pakistan Medical Commission Acts repealed at the earliest,” he said.

The Act was passed during the tenure of PTI and has been introduced in Pims. Moreover, similar legislation was made in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

According to a draft of the bill submitted by MNA Khan, Pims was established in 1985 as a tertiary care hospital/research centre. The institute comprises nine components - five hospitals and four teaching institutes such as Islamabad Hospital, Children Hospital, MCH, Burn Care Centre, Cardiac Care Centre, College of Medical Technology, College of Nursing, School of Dentistry and Quaid-i-Azam Postgraduate Medical Centre.

“The institute was working smoothly and enhancing the services regularly but during the previous regime the status of the institute was changed from an attached department of the federal government to an autonomous body i.e. federal MTI due to which the ailing humanity and the federal government servants are suffering a lot its services are deteriorating day by day,” it stated.

“Keeping in view the above, it is proposed that the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes Act 2021 (Act No XII of 2021) may be repealed and the department may be declared as an attached department of the ministry of NHS for its smooth functioning,” it said.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2022