PESHAWAR: The boards of governors of medical teaching institutions (MTIs) are unlikely to undergo sudden reshuffle despite the imposition of governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to sources.
The caretaker government in the province had replaced BoGs of MTIs, appointed by the previous government, three years ago before general elections in Feb 2024.
“Installed on Nov 12, 2023, the caretaker government appointed 44 new members to BoGs of MTIs on Dec 15, most of the people having no experience of any area required under the law. Therefore, government isn’t taking any immediate step to remove BoGs and will look into possibility of improving patient care through short-term measures in limited time,” an official told this scribe.
He said that there was no specific time frame for health reforms. Long-term measures like doing away with Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms (MTIR) Act need longer period of time and amendment from provincial assembly, he said.
Official says patient care to be improved through short-term measures
The official said that the priority was improvement in patient care, not removal of BoGs. “At a later stage, there can be changes in these boards but removal of all 12 BoGs is not among our to-do-list,” he added.
He said that the government was also avoiding controversy that surfaced over BoG nominations during the caretaker-era amid allegations of political appointees. Health department had rejected the allegations, saying that merit was the criteria for BoG appointments.
Caretakers tried to repeal the law in a bid to restore the old system of governance with the health secretariat looking after hospitals, but that couldn’t happen as the move required legislation by the assembly, which wasn’t existent at that time. So the caretaker government focused on changing BoG members.
Officials of health department said that BoGs remained attractive as those positions were voluntary but had huge powers of selecting dean, medical, hospital, finance and nursing directors of MTIs with powers to terminate those executives.
They said that government had ordered wide-scale transfers of administrative secretaries and deputy commissioners but MTIs required time to know about their problems, hold consultations and recommend corrective measures.
They said that several people were lobbying at different levels to be selected as members of any BoG but government was cautious as any intervention needed to be made after thorough search and in consultation with relevant officials running MTIs.
Presently, members of BoGs are physicians, lawyers, financial experts and paediatricians. Retired officials of health and other departments were chosen by the PTI government for membership of these boards.
The MTIR Act was introduced in 2015. The law granted financial and administrative independence free of bureaucratic and political influence to teaching hospitals and their affiliated medical dental colleges.
However, the new system failed to produce the desired results except introduction of institutional based practice in MTIs that attracted new specialties. There are also reports that scores of doctors with rare specialties are leaving MTIs because of the harsh situation they face from BoGs.
Slipping away from the control of health department after enforcement of MTIRA, hospitals are now run by professional people but most of them have been selected owing to their association with PTI. Neither BoGs of MTIs, nor the Policy Board, an oversight body of all MTIs, has government officials as their members.
One year ago, it was suggested to include health secretary in Policy Board to represent health department as government provides budget to MTIs but the proposal was turned down by architects and implementers of the law.
Sources in health department said that there was no urgency about the matters of MTIs. They said that the newly-appointed health adviser, a senior physician with vast administrative experience in healthcare, was in no mood to disrupt MTIs through sudden changes in BoGs.
Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2026
