LAHORE, June 17: Representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been included in the process to select medical superintendents of the teaching hospitals in Punjab.

It is for the first time that NGOs have been involved in the hiring of medical professionals, making many questions as to what qualifies them to have their say in the appointments of doctors (a highly-specialised field).

The seven-member committee, headed by Punjab Excise and Taxation Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, has been mandated to conduct interviews of general-cadre senior doctors for their selection as medical superintendents in the teaching hospitals against the vacant posts.

Three NGO women, Punjab Information Minister Farooq Ghurki, the chief secretary and the health secretary are its members.

A source in the health department told Dawn on Tuesday that the committee had interviewed 13 senior doctors and shortlisted three of them for the posts of medical superintendents of Mayo Hospital and Services Hospitals, Lahore, and the Bahawal Victoria Hospital, and forwarded a summary to the chief minister for approval.

The three hospitals are autonomous bodies and under the law, only the board of management of such an institution is authorised to finalise a panel of three candidates for the post of medical superintendent and submit the same to the chief minister for the appointment of one of them.

A senior doctor wondered as to how the NGO representatives would evaluate the capabilities and competence of senior doctors. He also contested the authority given to NGO persons to ‘pick and choose’ senior government officers.

Shujaur Rehman told Dawn he was not consulted on the constitution of the committee. He said in fact he could not preside over the meetings held to conduct interviews of senior doctors as he was busy in the long march. He said the IT minister or the health secretary could better comment on it.

Punjab Health Secretary Anwaar A. Khan could not be contacted for a comment.

Meanwhile, the provincial government has failed to appoint fulltime heads of the Allama Iqbal Medical College\Jinnah Hospital, Lahore; the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur; the King Edward Medical University; and the Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan.

A senior physician said the health sector didn’t appear to be the priority of the government. The coalition government of the PML-N and the PPP, he said, was quick to fire heads of some of the institutions but had taken more than two months to find ‘suitable’ candidates to fill the important posts.