PESHAWAR: The Medical Teaching Institutions Appellate Tribunal has issued a stay order temporarily stopping the administration of Nowshera’s Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex and its attached medical college from issuing letters of appointment to fill several posts.
However, the tribunal consisting of chairman retired Justice Nisar Hussain, Mohammad Bashir and Zafar Iqbal Khan allowed the complex’s administration to continue with the process for recruitment.
The tribunal fixed Sept 1 for next hearing into an appeal jointly filed by MPA Ikhtiar Wali and job candidate Mohammad Irfan against two advertisements issued a few days ago for recruitment againstseveral posts of BPS-5-BPS-20 in the Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex (QHAMC) and Nowshera Medical College (NMC).
After preliminary hearing, the tribunal issued notices to the respondents, including the provincial health secretary, the QHAMC hospital director, the MTI board of governors through its chairman, and others directing them to respond to the appeal on next hearing.
It also observed that it would first resolve the question of maintainability of the appeal as to whether the matter agitated was amenable to the appellate jurisdiction of this tribunal or in a writ petition before the high court.
The appellants requested the tribunal to declare those advertisements and appointment process illegal.
They gave multiple grounds for the acceptance of their appeal and said approval was not obtained from the QHAMC’s board of governors for issuing advertisements and making recruitment against several posts.
Advocate Shah Faisal Ilyas appeared for the appellants and said the health department, through a letter on Jan 24, 2020, had directed the respondents, including the relevant hospital director and dean of the NMC, to stop all types of recruitment in the QHAMC.
He said in violation of those directions, the respondents had advertised posts of numerous disciplines and that in order to carry out that recruitment, they had also sent a letter to the health secretary on July 14, 2022, for lifting that ban.
The lawyer, however, said the health secretary had not given any positive response to them.
He said one of the advertisements was issued on June 26, 2022 by acting hospital director of QHAMC Dr Anwar Khan, who was also the dean of NMC, for appointment on regular basis against different posts in BPS-5 to BPS-18.
The lawyer said a few days later, another advertisement was issued by the NMC’s dean for recruitment against different posts in BPS-5 to BPS-20.
He contended that the impugned advertisements were illegal and a violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court as the advertisements didn’t have any mention of the number of posts and approved criteria of each category.
Mr Shah Faisal contended that a respondent was the acting dean of NMC and also acted as the hospital director and therefore, he had no authority to make appointments against all categories of posts on regular basis as well as against those of clinical cadre.
He said the Peshawar High Court had issued a stay order against all recruitment against posts of Class IV in the hospital, and to ‘hoodwink’ the court, the hospital’s administration had upgraded several posts of Class IV to BPS-5.
When the tribunal asked how a sitting MPA could be an appellant and question the appointments, the counsel said being the elected member from his constituency, the lawmaker was under legal obligation to safeguard the interest of the locals, whereas the second appellant was a candidate for advertised posts.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2022
