ISLAMABAD: While a summary has been moved to the Prime Minister’s Office to appoint one of three doctors in grade 20 as the executive director (ED) of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), which is a BPS-21 post, other doctors, including one in BPS-21, who was already promoted as ED in 2019, have been ignored.

Moreover, despite abolishing the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI), members of the management committee of the hospital are still visiting the hospital and have not left their offices. They were appointed under the repealed MTI Act.

On the other hand, Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) spokesperson Sajid Shah said the ministry wanted to ensure that Pims became the best performing hospital and for this most competent persons were being considered rather than the most senior.

In the first week of January, President Arif Alvi finally signed the bill repealing the MTI Act 2021 which had changed the status of Pims employees as civil servants.

In November 2020, President Alvi had promulgated the MTI ordinance under which Pims was to be run through a board of governors (BoG). The BoG members were appointed and notified by the ministry of NHS on the recommendation of a search and nomination council.

Even though Pims employees protested against the ordinance, it sailed through the parliament. Later, some appointments were made under MTI Act. However, the current [PDM] government passed the MTI repeal bill and sent it to the president to get his nod but he returned it with a suggestion to reconsider it. Therefore, the government was left with no choice but to pass the bill again in a joint session of parliament after which the president approved it.

According to a document available with Dawn, the NHS secretary on Jan 12 had given the look-after charge of ED to a professor of psychiatry, Dr Rizwan Taj, who is a BPS 20 officer.

A summary has been moved by the ministry to the PM Office for the appointment of the permanent ED. Cardiologist Dr Mohammad Naeem Malik, radiology department’s head Dr Ayesha Esani and hospital’s deputy executive director Dr Farrukh Kamal have been recommended for the post.

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting not to be named, said the summary included the name of a doctor who would be retiring in two months.

The seniority list of doctors of Pims, available withDawn, also showed that there were many senior doctors. Moreover, in 2019, Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood was promoted as ED in BPS 21 but he was transferred from the hospital during the PTI government.

A senior doctor of Pims, Dr Asfandyar Khan, told Dawn that Pims was the biggest hospital of the federal capital and it deserved to have most competent and senior head.

“We request the ministry to consider merit while making the appointment,” he said.

When contacted, ministry’s spokesperson Sajid Shah said that the ministry believed that competence was more important than seniority.

“Minister Health Abdul Qadir Patel’s focus is to make Pims the best performing hospital of the city. So while recommending the names of candidates, for the post of ED, a number of other factors such as administrative experience, competence, eligibility, etc were considered. We need a best performing ED so that patients would be facilitated,” he said.

When asked why members of the management committee of the hospital were visiting their offices despite abolition of MTI, Mr Shah said the ministry was looking into it and appropriate action would be taken after considering the rules and new Act.

Published in Dawn, January 23th, 2023