NAROWAL, April 11 Officials of the district health department have allegedly committed malpractices in recruiting five homeo doctors after minting money and issued appointment letters to candidates other than the ones recommended by the recruitment committee headed by the district coordination officer (DCO).

Those who have been issued appointment letters are far inferior in qualification than those who could not be selected and taking notice of this grave malpractice, the DCO has sought a report from the district health department within seven days.

Around four months ago, the district health department advertised five posts of homeo doctors in BS-15 and in response to this received a good number of applications.

A five-member committee consisting of DCO Tahir Yousaf, as chairman, and health executive district officer (EDO) Dr Muhammad Ashraf Javaid, finance and planning EDO, a representative of the provincial health department and health district officer (DO), Dr Javaid Iqbal Sindhu, as members, was formed to conduct interviews of the aspirants. Health DO Dr Javaid Sindhu was secretary of the committee.

After interviews, the recruitment committee prepared a merit list and recommended certain candidates for appointments, but, according to sources, some officials did not issue appointment letters according to the merit list and instead issued letters to some other candidates after extorting money up to Rs100,000 per head.

Among the five selected candidates, Shabbir Ahmed, an intermediate/DHMS now posted at Rural Health Centre (RHC) Qila Ahmedabad and Shahida Parveen, a matriculate/DHMS now posted at RHC Zafarwal, were shown to have obtained maximum 20 marks in the interview.

Similarly, other low-qualified candidates Yasmin Akhter, posted at RHC Lassar Kalan, Amanat Ali, posted at RHC Kot Nainan and Shahid Hussain, posted at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Shakargarh, also bagged maximum marks in their interview.

But, some highly-qualified candidates have been rejected due to one reason or the other and declared failed in the interview. The rejected candidates include one Mumtaz Ahmed, an MSc in Psycology/DHMS, and Muhammad Shahid, an MA/LLB/DHMS. In the meanwhile, both these candidates have been selected on BS-17 posts. Mumtaz has been selected as district social mobiliser in the health department while Shahid as nutrition officer in the health department of Sialkot district.

Some ignored candidates, including Kamran and Shahbaz Ahmed, alleged that the selected candidates had paid heavy bribes up to Rs100,000.

When contacted, DO Health Dr. Javaid Sindhu, who was secretary of the recruitment committee, said he had not prepared the minutes sheet of the selection committee's meeting. He said that he had been forced to sign the minutes sheet, which was prepared by Muhammad Riaz, a superintendent, and Muhammad Aslam, an accounts clerk at the health EDO's office in Narowal. He said he was not responsible for any irregularities or malpractices in preparing the merit list or subsequent appointments.

The health EDO, Dr. Ashraf Javaid, was not available at his office phone numbers as well as on his cell phone despite repeated calls.

DCO Tahir Yousaf, the chairman of the recruitment committee, said the health department had issued appointment letters to candidates who were not indeed selected/recommended by the recruitment committee. He said the department had appointed the incumbent by violating the merit list prepared by the selection committee.

He said perhaps someone had tampered the minutes sheet of the selection committee and inserted names of certain other candidates at a later stage.

He said he had initiated an inquiry into the matter and directed the health EDO to submit a report within seven days.

Association of Human Rights president Khalid Mahmood Baig and Anjuman-i-Shehrian president Shiekh Sayar Ali and other social and political circles have condemned the illegal appointments and demanded an action against the delinquent officials.