ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Executive Director Dr Naeem Malik has curtailed administrative powers of hospital dean Dr Rizwan Taj, which were granted to the latter by the health ministry in February.

The notification, which does not have the approval of the health ministry, has raised many an eyebrow since ED Dr Naeem Malik, being the head of an ancillary institution, does not have the authority to override the ministry’s decision.

Pims spokesperson Dr Haider Abbasi played down the notification in this regard and said the ED will use these administrative powers himself.

According to a document available with Dawn, a clarification has been issued regarding the job description of the dean.

Executive director’s controversial notification overrides health ministry decision

“It is to inform that Prof Rizwan Taj, HOD Psychiatry Department, has been assigned the charge of dean…he assumed the said charge [on] 01.02.2023. It is therefore needed to be clarified that the responsibilities of the dean will only be to monitor the duties of the postgraduate residents, their performance evaluation, clinical supervision, attendance, roasters, implementations etc. as per rules and procedure already defined. No one is authorised to issue any kind of administrative orders without approval of the undersigned,” the notification said.

“It is further clarified that all employees of Pims, including the dean, are bound to follow the rules and procedures being subordinates of this office,” the letter issued and signed by the ED stated.

In February, the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) authorised Prof Rizwan Taj with administrative powers. The document stated that Dr Rizwan Taj has been assigned the charge of the dean in addition to his own duties for a period of three months.“All matters of postgraduate residency training/teaching programme pertaining to School of Nursing, College of Nursing and College of Medical Technology shall be dealt by the office of Dean Pims,” it stated.

A senior official of Pims, on the condition of anonymity, said that employees were “astonished by the decision” of the executive director. “As the health ministry has given the powers to the dean, only the ministry was able to withdraw the powers rather than a head of an ancillary department, the official said. “We fear that the ED will continue making decisions contrary to directions of the ministry and it will affect the hospital and employees both,” he said.

Dr Haider Abbasi, while talking to Dawn, said that earlier Dr Rizwan was using the powers of the ED as there was no ED in the hospital. “However now the ED has been appointed so he decided to get back his powers,” he said.It is worth mentioning that the hospital was being run under Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) and at that time there was a hospital director rather than an ED. The health ministry had given administrative powers to Dr Rizwan during the abovementioned period.

Pims official suspended

Meanwhile, Joint Executive Director Waris Ali Raza suspended an official of the hospital after he misbehaved with a media person, and also constituted an inquiry committee.

According to a document, Muhammad Usman has been suspended and directed to report to the Admin Branch.

The two-member inquiry committee is chaired by the Deputy Executive Director Dr Aneeza Jalil and the other member is Security Assistant Shamsheer Khan.“M Usman stopped them and then scuffled with a media person. Although it is not allowed to make videos in the lab, still the official was not authorised to scuffle with anyone. He should have informed the security department rather than taking any decision by himself,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023