PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration department has set today (Thursday) as the deadline for the directorate general (health services) to comply with its repeated orders to shift the remaining offices from the old Fata Secretariat to a nearby building of the livestock and dairy development department.

The offices were allocated to the DGHS after the merger of Fata with the province in 2018. The Fata Secretariat ceased to exist after the merger.

They were asked to relocate to the livestock office located on the same premises.

The directorate has already vacated half of the 40 rooms it occupied at the Old Fata Secretariat.

Officials fear directives will affect health-related activities

Officials of the directorate insist that relocating the offices would adversely affect health activities across the province.

A vacation notice issued on Wednesday and marked “Most Immediate” stated that 19 rooms or offices currently occupied by the DGHS had been allotted to the Area Development Secretariat (ADS) by the competent authority on Oct 30.

It said representatives of the Estate Office of the administration department had visited the premises repeatedly to facilitate the early relocation of the DGHS offices.

However, some offices were still occupied, adversely affecting the functioning of the ADS Secretariat.

“The competent authority has taken serious notice of the matter and directed the DGHS to vacate the offices by Thursday without fail so that possession could be handed over to the ADS.

Failing this, the department would have no option but to get the premises vacated forcibly,” it read.

Officials said the DGHS office had already informed the health adviser and secretary about the situation, requesting their intervention to resolve the matter, as the move could bring health-related activities in the province to a standstill. However, they said, no response had been received so far.

They said the directorate had already vacated 20 rooms, including halls, for the ADS and had been directed to vacate the remaining offices and shift to a dilapidated building belonging to the livestock and dairy development department.

They said the DGHS was an implementing arm of the health department’s secretariat and oversaw health services across the province, including those provided by more than 2,600 hospitals.

Officials said the department had over 90,000 employees working under the administrative supervision of the DGHS, making it impossible to manage such a vast network of health facilities and personnel from a few small and dilapidated rooms.

They said the Public Health Section had already been handed over to the ADS, forcing its staff to work from home or other locations.

The officials said the development came at a time when the province was battling dengue and other disease outbreaks, including Mpox.

They said that over the past few days, the DGHS had been unable to prepare proper reports on public health issues or maintain effective coordination with district health officers and medical superintendents of district headquarters hospitals.

The DGHS office has more than 300 staff members responsible for managing the province’s administrative, human resource and clinical affairs, making adequate office space essential for the smooth performance of these responsibilities.

They added that the health department had already surrendered some offices to the ADS, adversely affecting its functioning.

A senior official at the health department’s secretariat said they wanted to discuss these critical issues with senior officials of the administration department but nobody was willing to engage with them.

“The DGHS’s role is extremely important because it oversees health services across the province and ensures the smooth delivery of patient care. We receive international delegations representing organisations that support healthcare interventions in the province. We also have to enforce government policies, and all these responsibilities require adequate office space,” he said.

The official warned that evicting the DGHS offices from the current premises would not only demoralise employees who had been working there for decades but also send a “negative message” to the WHO, Unicef and other international organisations supporting healthcare activities in the province.

Officials suggested that instead of displacing the DGHS from its current premises, the ADS be allocated office space in one of the 12 districts designated following

the imposition of governor’s rule and the declaration of an emergency.

They also said the DGHS was set to spearhead the HPV vaccination campaign, which was launched in the province on Wednesday.

Officials said the directorate had several specialised sections dealing with different health-related matters, all aimed at ensuring effective healthcare delivery and immunisation across the province.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2026