LAHORE: For the post of administrator of the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority (P-HOTA), the Punjab health department has created a list of 16 candidates, some of whom are doctors working at government facilities.
A lump sum monthly compensation package of Rs1 million would be paid for the four-year job.
The candidates for the top slot of the P-HOTA included former King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Asad Aslam Khan, former chairman of the Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore Prof Farid Ahmad Khan, principal of Allama Iqbal Medical College Prof Nadeem Hafeez Butt, professor of urology at Services Hospital Prof Shahzad Anwar, Prof Zafar H Tanvir, Prof Sami Mumtaz, Prof Mohammad Waris, Prof Rasheed Malik, Prof Zohra Khanum, Prof Tahira Tabassum, Dr Wasim Hyat, Dr Khalid Mahmood, Prof Irshad Hussain, and Dr Usman Ghani.
They will be interviewed on Wednesday by a committee, headed by interim Health Minister Prof Dr Javed Akram.
An official source said the most disturbing part of the development was that the committee has also shortlisted many senior medics who were heading the medical teaching hospitals or the departments/wards.
List contains aspirants violating criteria
He said the committee has ignored a core fact: that the assignment of a regular P-HOTA director general required full-time service to eliminate illegal human organ transplantation and trafficking, which has been going unnoticed for the last many years across the province.
The appointment of a senior medic serving or heading other mega-government medical institutions would be deemed ‘illegal’ if they did any other contractual job against a hefty salary package during the official timings, the source claimed.
He said the rules and regulations have categorically declared that the doctors in government service can’t do a second job during the official timings.
The official timings are 8am to 4pm at P-HOTA and the government institutes, he said, adding that it would not be possible for the head (in case of an appointment from government service) to spend the required time in the authority’s office.
The post requires 10 years of experience in management in any medical institution or hospital, besides an MBBS with level-III qualification as defined by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.
According to the terms and conditions notified by the Punjab government, a person who is not more than 65 years of age on the last date fixed for submission of applications for the post can apply.
It also declared that candidates who had a ‘conflict of interest’ with the post would not be eligible.
The government advertised that those involved in organ transplant owned a clinic or a hospital where “organ transplant” is performed or those who are members of the Monitoring Authority of P-HOTA shall not be eligible to apply for the post.
The terms show that some of the candidates on the shortlist do not meet the terms.
Two of them head teaching hospitals, while the third is a professor of urology.
Of them, one is heading the urology department, which is directly associated with kidney transplant procedures (a condition mentioned in the terms and conditions).
Prof Aslam is the only candidate who has served as the P-HOTA director general in December 2021. He resigned from the post in June 2022 citing some ‘personal reasons’.
The official said that the mafias geared up illegal human organ trafficking and transplant in Punjab during the last few years as most of the time the Authority was headed by temporarily appointed heads. It is evident from some official figures that 24 rackets have surged in the province to carry out hundreds of illegal organ transplants.
Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2023
