• Division bench rules single bench hearing the main case can decide plea for temporary injunction ‘either way after hearing all parties’
• Argument that Sindh govt is not competent to appoint JPMC’s executive director ‘requires deliberation by single bench’, judges observe

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has allowed an intra-court appeal against the order of a single bench that suspended a provincial government notification extending the tenure of Dr Shahid Rasool as the executive director of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

The Sindh government had extended the tenure of Dr Rasool as the executive director of the JPMC until June 24, 2026, the date of his retirement. However, the notification was challenged through a lawsuit, and the single bench had suspended it a couple of weeks ago.

Dr Rasool, through his counsel, challenged the single-bench order before the division bench headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput.

The court allowed his plea and set aside the impugned order. It observed that the single bench might decide the application for temporary injunction either way after hearing all parties.

“The impugned order has been passed on the submission that the Sindh government was not competent to appoint the executive director of JPMC,” the court order said.

It added that the record showed that it was established in the case of Dr Nadeem Rizvi that the JPMC was a federal institution. An agreement was reached between the federation and the provincial government and according to a notification issued by the Ministry of National Health Services on August 8, 2023, the management, operational control and financial liabilities of the JPMC were entrusted to the government of Sindh, it added.

“It appears that ever since the government of Sindh has been making appointments to the JPMC without objection from the federal government. It seems that these facts were not brought to the attention of the learned single judge at the time of the impugned order,” the bench noted.

Referring to the argument that the Sindh government was not competent to appoint the JPMC’s executive director, the division bench noted that it would require deliberation by the single bench.

“Till such time, the effect of the impugned order is that while the appellant is restrained from acting as executive director of the JPMC, the question to the competence of the government of Sindh also prevents it from appointing another in his place,” the bench observed.

The bench noted that they agreed with the contention of the Sindh advocate general that the absence of the executive director of the JPMC “jeopardizes the functions of an essential service to the public at large”.

Earlier, Dr Rasool’s counsel took the plea that his client was part of the JPMC, which is a teaching hospital where the appellant performed surgery and also provided education to medical students.

He submitted that the impugned notification was in continuation of an earlier notification that was not challenged by anyone, including the plaintiff. He said the impugned order was liable to be set aside as it was affecting his client’s rights as well as the working of the JPMC.

However, the plaintiff’s counsel opposed the appeal and submitted that Dr Rasool held a post at the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) and was taken in on deputation in JPMC in 2021. The counsel argued that the Sindh government was not empowered to make such an appointment.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2025