LAHORE: After a two-year or so delay, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has finally promoted 10 senior doctors to BS-21 on the basis of their “meritorious services”, rejecting the names of nine others on various grounds.

The cases of total 19 BS-20 doctors were recommended by Punjab health department in a summary moved to the chief minister through the Punjab chief secretary for promotion to BS-21 for rendering “meritorious services” in medical education and their respective fields and disciplines.

An official says all the doctors promoted to BS-21 were serving in major government teaching institutes of the provincial capital (Lahore), except one from south Punjab and two others from Rawalpindi, that shows the department’s priorities and smacks of discrimination against those serving in the rest of the province.

He says some doctors criticised the Punjab government authorities concerned for showing a ‘soft corner’ towards those serving in Lahore.

Quoting examples, he says the chief minister has dropped for promotion the Nisthar Medical University, Multan, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Rana Altaf Ahmed and two others from Rawalpindi Medical University, professors of surgery Dr Idrees Anwar and Dr Waseem Iqbal Sheikh, just on the pretext of ‘incomplete documents’.

He says Prof Altaf, the only senior anesthesia specialist in the panel, was dropped for promotion despite the chronic shortage of specialists in this discipline already hitting the government sector institutes hard.

He says the critics believe the government seems to have sent a strong message to the medical practitioners serving in other parts of the province that if they want to get promoted to higher grades they will have to serve in the provincial capital and develop links in the ‘power corridors’.

Similarly, he says, another senior doctor, Prof Dr Farid Ahmad Khan, who has served as chairman of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore and currently posted at the Services Hospital Lahore, has also been denied promotion as “he was supposed to have relations with the PML-N, a rival political party of the PML-Q/PTI, alliance ruling in Punjab.” He was the only professor of plastic surgery, the most neglected discipline in the government sector hospitals.

Some of the medics who got promoted to BS-21 were serving as heads of the public sector institutes.

It is interesting to note that three out of total 10 promoted doctors are gynaecologists, he says.

According to the notification, former chief executive officer of the Mayo Hospital Lahore, Prof Saqib Saeed, was the only doctor whose name was rejected for promotion to BS-21 due to the action initiated against him under Peeda Act, while all others were dropped over ‘missing documents’.

“The Board examined the service record of the officer (Prof Saqib Saeed) in detail and keeping in view the missing PERs (Performance Evaluation Reports) and inquiry pending under PEEDA Act 2006 against him, recommended that the officer may not be considered for grant of BS21”, reads the official notification (a copy is available with Dawn).

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has increased the number of promotions of the health professionals in BS-21 from five to 11 as 10 senior doctors have been promoted to BS-21, while another slot in the same grade is already occupied by the University of Child Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Masood Sadiq.

There were also reports the Punjab government has actually created 13 new BS-21 positions and wanted to fill all of them. However, the other positions fell vacant as three of the medics recommended in the summary could not qualify for promotion.

Giving an example in this respect, the official says some two months back, the Punjab chief secretary had recommended to the chief minister names of only four most senior professors for promotion to BS-21 to acknowledge their services. However, he adds, the move stirred a controversy and created resentment among other senior medics who demanded increase in the number of the slots to 10, keeping in view the services rendered by senior medical teachers in their respective fields. Consequently, the government reviewed the summary and added more names later, sending a fresh summary to the chief minister.

According to the notification issued two days back, those who got promotion to BS-21 are Lahore General Hospital Professor of Medicine Dr Ghiasun Nabi, Ameeruddin Medical College Principal Prof Sardar Al-fareed Zafar, Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC) Principal Prof Nadeem Hafeez Butt, AIMC Professor of Paediatrics Prof Aysha Arif, pro vice-chancellor of Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU) and King Edward Medical University (KEMU) Professor of Obst & Gynae Dr Shamsa Humayun, FJMU Professor of Surgery Prof Kamran Khalid, Professor of Obst & Gynae Dr Aisha Malik, Professor of Obst and Gynae Dr Tayyaba Wasim, UCHS Lahore Medical Director Prof Dr Mohammad Saleem and Institute of Neurosciences Lahore Executive Director Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023