PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has suspended the provincial government’s order for terminating the services of the chief executive officer of the Post Graduate Medical Institute Peshawar and directed it to maintain status quo on the matter.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah issued notices to the provincial chief secretary and health and finance secretaries giving them a fortnight to respond to the petition of PGMI CEO Prof Sahibzada Mehmood Noor against his removal and disciplinary action against him.

It observed that after the examination of records, it seemed that additional seats of trainee medical officers (TMOs) were created by the caretaker government following protests by the Young Doctors Association (YDA), and that nothing appeared to have been initiated by the petitioner for the creation of those seats.

The petitioner requested the court to declare illegal and unconstitutional the Aug 29, 2024, decision of the provincial cabinet and the subsequent order for his removal on Sept 5, 2024.

Seeks govt’s reply to petition on matter

He also sought the court’s orders for the government to quash the recommendations made in the cabinet meeting of Aug 29 against him, and for his restoration as the PGMI’s chief for the remaining term of his service.

Advocate Khalid Rehman appeared for the petitioner and said that his client was a leading doctor, who also served as the professor of dermatology at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital.

He said the petitioner was posted CEO to the PGMI through an order on Dec 1, 2022, for two years and his performance remained up to the mark thereafter.

The counsel said that the PGMI issued an induction order of the MBBS/BDS degree holders in various specialties for the session 2024 on Jan 10, 2024, and inducted 572 doctors for postgraduate training on merit.

He added that scores of candidates didn’t get the induction opportunity.

Mr Rehman said that the leftover candidates started protests, prompting the then caretaker chief minister to constitute a committee for finding out ways and means for them.

He added that the committee recommended to the chief minister that induction of those doctors was in the “best interest of the people.”

The lawyer said that the Young Doctors Association also agreed that those doctors wouldn’t claim any stipend, so their induction won’t have any financial implications.

He argued that a cabinet meeting on Feb 22, 2024, gave approval for the creation of 194 more slots of TMOs on the payment of basic stipend without accommodation allowance and workshop fee.

Mr Rehman said that the PGMI inducted 190 more TMOs for training but those doctors laterstarted agitation for stipend. The lawyer said that the PGMI requested the finance department to provide funds for the purpose, but to no avail.

He contended that the cabinet meeting took notice of the matter on Aug 29 and put the entire blame of creating 190 positions on the petitioner and recommended termination of his remaining employment period as theCEOand disciplinary action against him.

Mr Rehman argued that the decision about those TMO slots was taken by the government and not his client.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2024