LAHORE: The Punjab governor called a meeting of the provincial chapter of Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) here on Friday (today) following the resignation of the chairman of the Management Committee (MC) of the Society Sheikh Ahmad Farooq as ‘chairman of the Board of Governor (BoG) of the Pakistan Red Crescent Medical College (PRCMC).’

Mr Farooq was simultaneously holding two key assignments including chairman of the MC PRCS and chairman of the BoG of the PRMC. He had resigned from his office mentioned above on Nov 11, 2024 when the treasurer and some of members of the Management Committee (MC) of the PRCS took up the issue of honorarium of Rs500,000 per month he was granted as chairman of the BoG for PRCMC from the funds of the college.The correspondence over the above-mentioned issues between the PRCS chairman and the other members/officials of the PRCS during the last few months led to a crisis in the organisation, affecting the administrative matters seriously.

Some members believed that world over the chairmen/members of the Red Crescent as guardians exercise their jurisdiction of locus-parentis, performing their duties on an honorary basis.

An official said the differences widened when treasure of the PRCS Punjab Branch Dr Shoukat Ali issued an order on Nov 18, 2024 of the temporary suspension of honorarium for the chairman and financial allowance for Mohammad Zahid, the Director General (Admin Operations), who was also holding the key position of the PRCS Punjab Secretary.

The treasurer informed the PRCS chairman retired Justice Sheikh Ahmad Farooq about the temporary suspension of the honorarium released from the budget of the Pak Red Crescent Medical College.

In response to the official letter of the PRCS treasurer, the chairman of the Society suspended his (treasurer) order the very next day (Nov 19).

He claimed that the honorarium and additional allowance is being paid to him (PRCMC BOG chairman) and DG (admin and operations) from the budget of Pak Red Crescent Medical College and Teaching Hospital following the approval granted by the Management Committee.

Resultantly, the honorary treasurer has no jurisdiction or authority to suspend the implementations of the decision of the MC, the chairman said.

Talking to Dawn, PRCS chairman Sheikh Ahmad Farooq said that an opposition group launched baseless propaganda against him.

“We get an annual audit of all our accounts. I have voluntarily resigned from the post of Chairman BOG of Red Crescent Medical College due to a change in the stance of a few members of the MC under the influence of vice chairman Mahmood Qadir Shah.

He said the letter of the treasurer has no value as against the decision of 15 members of the Managing Committee.

Additionally, treasurer Dr. Shoukat Ali was amongst those members of MC who supported the proposal of another member of Azam Khan for grant of honorarium to the Chairman BOG and remaining members of BOG.

They are trying to confuse and intermingle the Punjab Red Crescent Society with the Red Crescent Medical College.

“We were paying around Rs40 million as monthly salary to the teaching faculty in addition to charging at least Rs1.5m annual fee from students and discounted rates from patients”, Ahmad Farooq said.

Following the differences between the two sides over the above-mentioned issues, the Punjab governor called the meeting of the management committee to take a final decision in this respect here on Friday (today).

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2024