HYDERABAD: Liaquat University Hospital’s poor financial management cost its finance director his DDO (drawing and disbursing officer) powers, according to a spokesman for the Sindh health department.
He cited a written complaint in this regard against the Finance Director, Zaheer Abbas Bhatti, submitted earlier by the LUH (City) medical superintendent.
The LUH Hyderabad is Sindh’s second largest tertiary level hospital which receives patients from around 16 districts, which do not have many essential facilities at their hospitals.
The LUH was bifurcated as ‘LUH Hyderabad’ and ‘LUH Jamshoro’ in June this year.
Responding to a report published in Dawn on Thursday, the spokesman explained that in view of complaints regarding financial mismanagement at the LUH Jamshoro, it was necessary to temporarily transfer the DDO powers to a “neutral senior medical officer” from the finance director to ensure a smooth functioning of the hospital’s affairs.
He said that the DDO powers were delegated to Dr Niaz Hussain Babbar, a BS-19 officer.
LUH’s bifurcation into separate budgetary cost centres was undertaken to facilitate independent administrative and financial functioning. Accordingly, the Sindh finance department reflected both
hospitals as separate cost centres in the budget estimates for 2026-27.
Initially, the LUH Hyderabad finance director (who was notified as ‘Director Finance for LUH Hyderabad and Jamshoro’ in May this year), was authorised to exercise DDO powers for both the hospitals through their respective medical superintendents.
However, as the post of director finance was reflected against LUH Hyderabad alone, an interim arrangement was required to ensure an uninterrupted financial functioning of the LUH Jamshoro.
The spokesman said that the aim of assigning the DDO responsibilities for the LUH Jamshoro was to facilitate timely processing of financial transactions and effective utilisation of allocated budget. “The health department has requested the provincial finance department to create a separate post of director finance for the LUH Jamshoro to regularise financial management arrangements in accordance with applicable statutory and financial framework,’’ he said.
The spokesman did not clarify when MS Dr Ershad Kazmi submitted complaints against Mr Bhatti, who was appointed through a competitive process by the Sindh government under a special law — The Sindh Teaching Hospitals (Establishment of Management Board) Act, 2020 — for three years for both LUH Hyderabad and Jamshoro.
He also didn’t specify whether the health department had sought a written approval from the finance department for delegating the DDO powers to a doctor in the presence of the director finance.
When contacted, Dr Ershad Kazmi said he can neither deny nor can he confirm that he had submitted complaints against the director finance.
Mr Bhatti, however, told Dawn that he did not receive any complaint against him. “Nor did anyone from the health department contact him over the alleged complaints against him’’.
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026
