PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Thursday summoned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and a recently transferred health secretary in contempt pleas accusing them of replacing chairmen and members of the board of governors (BoG) of some medical teaching institutions in the province.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali directed that the two officers should appear in person today (Thursday) for explaining their position.

The court had earlier on June 26 suspended a notification of provincial government of appointing chairman of BoG of MTI Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) Peshawar despite issuance of a stay order by the court.

The bench was hearing different contempt of court petitions filed by some former chairmen and members of BoG of KTH and Ayub Teaching Hospital, who stated that the high court had issued clear order on June 13 to restrain government from taking any adverse action against them and also not to pass any final order on the matter regarding the expected removal of petitioners and appointment of new chairman/members of BoG on the recommendation of search and nomination council.

Petitioners claim MTI BoGs chairmen replaced contrary to court order

However, they stated that after the order was issued, provincial government issued back-dated notifications purportedly of June 11 through which the petitioners were removed from the said post.

One of the contempt petitions is filed by KTH BoG chairman Dr Umer Ayub Khan, requesting the court to initiate proceedings against the officers, who had violated the said order.

Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran, Rahmanullah Shah and Habib Anwar appeared for the petitioners and stated that on June 13 the bench had in clear terms stopped the government from issuing any final order.

They said that the order of the court had been violated as a back-dated notification of June 11 was issued whereby the petitioner was removed from the post of BoG chairman/member of KTH.

They stated that provincial government issued another notification on June 20 through which one Taimoor Shah was appointed the chairman of the said BoG by the chief minister under section 5 of MTI Reforms Act, 2015.

The lawyers contended that that one was also a back-dated notification aimed at frustrating the order of the high court.

“By issuing the said notification, prima facie the order of this court dated 13.6.2024 has been violated and has thereby undermined the authority of this court,” the bench had observed during previous hearing.

On Thursday, when the bench ordered that the chief secretary and the health secretary should appear in person, an additional advocate general pointed out that the said health secretary had been transferred. The bench directed that the transferred secretary should appear in the matter.

Justice Ijaz Anwar observed that on June 13 the advocate general present in the court had informed the bench that so far no order adverse to the interest of the petitioner had been passed and the petition was premature. However, the judge observed the said notifications were subsequently made public.

The bench wondered how it could be possible that the advocate general was unaware of the said development, if the notifications were issued prior to the court order, and had not informed the bench about it.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2024