PESHAWAR: A doctors’ association on Wednesday moved the Peshawar High Court challenging the appointment of over 2,000 doctors and nurses on a contractual basis by the provincial health department.

Malgare Doctoran, affiliated with the Awami National Party, filed a petition through its central president, Dr Haider Ali, requesting the court to declare illegal before setting aside the entire recruitment process conducted pursuant to two impugned notifications through which respective divisional commissioners and additional commissioners were appointed as chairpersons of departmental appointment committees and scrutiny committees, respectively.

The petitioner requested the court to declare the two impugned notifications issued by the government on Feb 9 and Feb 26, 2026, illegal and in conflict with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department Contract Appointment of Doctors (Fixed-Pay) Rules, 2022.

It said the scrutiny and departmental selection committees constituted under those notifications were not legally constituted and all proceedings undertaken by those committees, including scrutiny, interviews, recommendations, preparation of merit lists and selections, were without jurisdiction and liable to be set aside.

The petitioner sought the court’s orders for the government to constitute fresh scrutiny and departmental selection committees strictly in accordance with the rules.

It also requested the court to direct the respondents to notify a “transparent, objective and province-wide scrutiny and marking criterion” before recommencing the recruitment process.

The petitioner sought interim relief requesting to restrain the government from issuing appointment orders and finalising the recruitment process until the final disposal of the petition.

The petition filed through advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai included as respondents the health department through its secretary, director general (health services), chairman of the Grievance Redressal Committee, health department and chairpersons of the departmental selection committees and scrutiny committees.

The petitioner said that the health department had advertised various posts of medical officers, dental surgeons and nurses on fixed-pay basis and initiated a province-wide recruitment process.

It claimed that it had received numerous complaints from candidates belonging to different districts and divisions regarding serious irregularities, lack of transparency, arbitrary assessment and unlawful constitution of the committees entrusted with the recruitment process.

The petitioner said that the department issued a notification on Feb 9, 2026, whereby the divisional additional commissioners were notified as chairpersons of the scrutiny committees, whereas subsequently another notification was issued on Feb 26, 2026, whereby divisional commissioners were notified as chairpersons of the departmental selection committees.

It said that the notifications purportedly derived authority from Rule 4(B) of the KP Health Department Contract Appointment of Doctors (Fixed-Pay) Rules, 2022, as amended in 2025.

The petitioner claimed despite the scale and significance of the recruitment process, the respondents failed to formulate, publish or notify any transparent and uniform criteria regarding allocation of marks for additional qualifications, postgraduate qualifications, specialisations, MPhil degrees, MPH degrees and other higher medical qualifications possessed by candidates.

He added that the respondents failed to disclose the methodology adopted by interview panels, including the allocation of marks among individual panel members, the evaluation criteria applied during interviews and the basis upon which interview scores were awarded.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2026