PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has appointed a former judge of the Peshawar High Court Justice (retired) Abdul Shakoor as chairman of the appellate tribunal for MTIs (Medical Teaching Institutions).

A notification was issued by the provincial health secretary on Aug 21 stating that retired Justice Abdul Shakoor has been appointed as chairman of the tribunal for three years.

He was appointed under sub-sections 1 and 2 of section 16-A of the KP Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015 read with Rule 3 sub-rule 1 of the KPMTI Appellate Tribunal Rules 2020.

The notification states that the appointment was made on by the KP government on the recommendation of the search and nomination committee.

Justice (retired) Abdul Shakoor, hailing from Abbottabad, was a senior lawyer and was appointed as additional judge of the PHC in March 2017. A year later he was confirmed as a judge of the high court in March 2018. He had retired in Dec 2023.

The rules provide that the chairman of the tribunal should be a former judge of the high court.

The upper age limit for the chairman and members of the tribunal is 65 years.

Under the MTI Act, an employee of any of the MTIs can file an appeal before the tribunal in relation to any matter related to terms and conditions of their services.

Earlier, the government had appointed former PHC chief justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan as chairman of the tribunal on June 11, 2024, for a period of three years.

However, following the said notification certain quarters had started a campaign against Justice Ibrahim on social media levelling allegations that he was ‘rewarded’ for his judgements in favour of leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf after May 9, 2023.

He had then declined to accept the said appointment stating: “I must respectfully decline to assume the charge to dispel the impression of extension of any favour to me for some reason.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2024