LAHORE: The Punjab government has made appointment of new vice chancellors of five medical universities of the province for a term of four years, seeking an affidavit from the VCs that they were not holding any other post.

The posting orders were issued a few days after a candidate moved to the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the appointment process and the LHC directed the health secretary to produce the record related to the recruitment.

It is for the first time that the government has made the appointments of new VCs of the medical varsities conditional while clearly mentioning in the official notifications that they would not hold any other assignment.

According to the notifications, retired dean of the Children Hospital Lahore, Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore, has been posted as VC of University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore, former principal of the Services Institute of Medical Sciences Prof Mahmood Ayaz would head the King Edward Medical University (KEMU), former KEMU VC Prof Khalid Masood Gondal has been made VC of the Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU) while Prof Mohammad Umar and Prof Zafar Chaudhry have been reappointed as VCs of Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) and Faisalabad Medical University (FMU), respectively.

An official, privy to the information, told Dawn the Punjab government made appointments of these senior doctors when some of them assured in the affidavits that they had resigned from the other assignments. He said an official search committee, headed by retired Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, had made recommendations for postings after the interviewing 50 retired and serving medical teachers.

The official said that former chairman of Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, Prof Farid Ahmad Khan, who was also contesting for the posts, had sought LHC intervention to seek clarity for the criteria being followed by the search committee.

Justice Shujaat Ali Khan of the LHC directed the secretary (specialised healthcare) to produce the record of the recruitment process against posts. The petitioner argued that allocation of 50 marks for interview went against the spirit of Recruitment Policy 2022.

His counsel, Hafiz Tariq Nasim, alleged mala fide on the part of the respondents in the recruitment and pointed out to the court that the petitioner had professional rivalry with one of the members of the search committee, retired professor of plastic surgery, who had an axe to grind against the interest of the aggrieved petitioner as it was against Recruitment Policy of 2022.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022