PESHAWAR: Hospital director of the Hayatabad Medical Complex Dr Gulzar Ahmad Khan has claimed that he is being forced by the chairman of the hospital’s board of governors to resign for objecting to alleged illegal appointments and interference in administrative affairs.

Last April, HMC medical director Dr Mohammad Mushtaq called it a day within four months of his appointment for what official sources claim resisting some key hospital postings by the BoG in “violation of merit”.

“Chairman of the BoG has been interfering in routine day-to-day administrative matters, sitting in the institution for half a week and taking part in decision-making that has substantially restricted executive officers from exercising the statutory powers and responsibilities as per MTI Act and regulations,” HMC HD Dr Gulzar claimed in a letter to chairman of the MTI Policy Board Prof Nausherwan Barki.

Dr Gulzar, who has been working at the HMC since January and previously held similar positions in Bannu and Mardan, insisted that violation of MTIRA’s governance principles, especially regarding the statutory role and limits of authority of the BoG chairman, had shaken the balance between policy oversight and executive management, as outlined in MTI governance model.

Writes to chairman of MTI Policy Board about issue

He said that he was seriously concerned about the appointment of director (finance), chief internal auditor, clinical consultants and other directors and managers as those appointments had already been challenged in the court of law and the anti-corruption establishment department and warranted through probe.

The HD claimed that the appointment of relatively inexperienced individuals to positions carrying significant administrative and financial responsibility, including a doctor who was initially appointed as a medical officer in the ICU, then assigned the position of the manager at the Sehat Sahulat Programme and lately project director at the multi-billion-rupees Accident and Emergency project.

“More recently, an organised effort has been undertaken to remove me because I refuse to tag along these unfair and illegal practices,” he alleged.

Dr Gulzar said that the prevailing administrative environment had reportedly resulted in the declining staff morale, fear of expressing independent professional opinion, suppression of constructive dissent and a progressive deterioration in institutional culture.

He added that such an environment was inconsistent with the principles of professional autonomy and participatory governance envisioned under the MTI framework.

The HD said that there were recurring concerns regarding the non-circulation of BoG’s agendas and approved minutes of the last four meetings to the relevant executive officers who were expected to implement the decisions.

He alleged that the cumulative effect of those steps by the chairman of the HMC board was a gradual erosion of institutional autonomy, executive accountability and the governance architecture that had distinguished the MTI system since its inception.

“The BoG chairman is trying to create an impression of mismanagement and is trying to take corrective measures, but as a matter of fact, he is dismantling all the good work and reputation of the MTI system brick by brick,” he insisted in the letter.

Dr Gulzar requested the MTI Policy Board to review these matters and ensure that the principles of transparency, merit, accountability and statutory governance are preserved in letter and spirit.

“I submit these concerns solely in the larger interest of protecting an institutional reform that has taken years of commitment and perseverance to establish and which, in my respectful view, deserves to be safeguarded for future generations,” he noted.

The HD said that he “officially confirmed” gross misconduct by the BoG chairman in the recruitment of DF, CIA and senior consultants, who were working without obtaining registration of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, as well as in other appointments.

He claimed that the hospital’s finance director and chief internal auditor weren’t verifying their membership of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ council despite three reminders by the HR department, with the BoG chairman asking him not to proceed with the matter.

Sources also said that the board chairman had served a show-cause notice on the HD for “not cooperating with him on hospital affairs”.

When contacted, spokesman for HMC Waseem Khattak refused to comment on the matter.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2026