ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) employees on Monday threatened to close down the outpatient department (OPD) to protest the delay in the signing of the bill by President Arif Alvi to repeal the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) Act.

The bill to repeal MTI was passed by the National Assembly on October 18 and sent to the president for approval, as it was already passed by the Senate of Pakistan. However, Mr Alvi has yet to sign the proposed legislation.

The Pims employees alleged that the president was delaying the process because the MTI act was legislated by his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) which was ousted through a no-confidence vote in April this year.

During a meeting, the employees decided that they will start protests and may shut down outpatient departments (OPDs) as an initial step if the president failed to give his assent to the bill during the ongoing week.

Staffers say entire hospital suffering due to uncertainty surrounding the law

Federal Health Alliance (FHA) Chairman Qamar Gujjar said that employees were left with no option but to opt for protests and eventually shut down the hospital. He said that because of the delay in signing the bill, the entire hospital was suffering due to uncertainty.

FHA Spokesperson Dr Haider Abbasi said that Dr Alvi, being a dentist himself, should consider the problems of the healthcare workers. “It is unfortunate that the bill has been passed by Senate and National Assembly but President [Alvi] has been delaying it,” he said. Dr Abbasi alleged that the officials hired under the MTI act approached the president to sit on the bill as they “wanted to secure their service”. “We request the president to sign the bill and help us get rid of this black law,” Dr Abbasi said.

It is worth mentioning that 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 would deal with all affairs of the Pims. The members were appointed and notified by the Ministry of National Health Services on the recommendation of a search and nomination council.

Though employees held protests against the ordinance, it sailed through parliament to become law. After coming to power, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced that it would repeal the MTI act, and a bill to this effect was passed by the National Assembly and Senate by the first week of October.

As some amendments were made to the bill by the Senate so the bill was once again passed by the National Assembly on October 18 and forwarded to the president for his signature.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2022