PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday gave the last chance to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to respond to the petitions against the dissolution of the policy board as well as the boards of governors (BoGs) of the medical teaching institutions in the province.

Fixing May 9 for hearing into petitions filed by members of those boards, a bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor observed that it wouldn’t allow further adjournments and would hear the matter even if the respondents, including the government, didn’t file comments on the pleas.

The bench was hearing several petitions filed by aggrieved members of the policy board and BoGs.

One of the petitions was filed by four members of the dissolved policy board challenging the termination of their membership by the health department through a notification issued on March 28.

PHC declares no more adjournments in the case

The petitioners also challenged the March 16 decision of the caretaker cabinet to remove them.

On April 4, a high court bench had granted an interim relief to the petitioners, including Mohammad Tahir, Dr Zeeshan bin Ishtiaque, retired major-general Salahuddin Qasim and Prof Ghazala Mahmud, and suspended the notification in question for them.

Some other petitions were filed by members of BoGs of different MTIs challenging the March 16 decision of the provincial cabinet to dissolve the BoGs.

A bench had on April 12 suspended the decision of the caretaker cabinet to dissolve these boards and had sought replies from the KP chief secretary and Election Commission of Pakistan.

Lawyers Shumail Ahmad Butt and Ali Gohar Durrani appeared for the petitioners, whereas the provincial government was represented by assistant advocate general Saqib Raza.

Advocates Hafiz Zain Rashid and Hassam Rawan defended the Young Doctors Association, which filed an application for becoming party to the petitions.

Mr Butt contended that the respondents, including the government, had so far not filed comments to petitions despite the court’s orders.

AAG Saqib Raza requested the bench to allow him 10 more days to respond to the pleas on behalf of the government.

The bench granted him time until May 9 for the purpose but declared that it would hear the matter next time even if the sought-after replies were not filed.

The petitioners requested the court to declare that the role of the current caretaker setup is confined to the running of the day-to-day affairs of the province with the help of the available machinery and that the caretakers can’t take policy decisions and “permanent measures” like recruitment, appointments, transfers and postings, and removal of government officials.

They contended that a Supreme Court judgement about the powers of the caretaker government should be implemented in line with the spirit of Part VIII of Constitution and Section 230 of the Elections Act, 2017.

The petitioners said that the provincial government had enacted the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act in 2015 to run major teaching hospitals in the province through BoGs.

They said that BoGs of MTIs had several achievements to their credit and it was only natural that the boards would be allowed to complete their tenure.

The petitioners, however, said that to their utmost surprise, a summary was moved by the health secretary to remove BoG members.

They added that the summary for it was placed before the caretaker cabinet, which approved it on March 16.

The petitioners contended that Section 230 of the Elections Act prohibited the caretaker government from making any policy decision in the province and therefore, its decision on MTI boards was illegal and without lawful authority.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023