LAHORE, July 13: A Punjab Finance Department’s additional-secretary was transferred on June 7 for demanding details of financial affairs of the defunct Board of Governors of the Jinnah Hospital.

The orders transferring Shafqatur Rahman Ranjha, who was official member of the BoGs, were issued only hours after the BoG meeting in which he had asked for the details. He was also transferred from the finance department and made an OSD.

He had also questioned the alleged financial irregularities in the BoGs of the Jinnah Hospital and Allama Iqbal Medical College, sources said on Friday.

The officer was not available for comments, but it was learnt that he had been advised immediate heart surgery after diagnosis of blockage in three arteries.

According to the sources, the officer in the initial meetings of the board had objected to the purchase of a 1,600cc car for the principal executive officer, his Rs250,000 monthly salary and plan to increase the hospital fee of patients from Rs2 to Rs10.

The officer reportedly had informed the board that the car purchase for the CEO was illegal, as this was over and above the limit for the administrative secretaries or even the provincial ministers who were permitted to have only 1,300cc official cars.

There was a ban on the purchase of new cars and the board was informed that it would have to seek permission of the president for buying one for its CEO.

The officer had also said the facilities for the CEO would prompt members of other hospitals’ BoGs in the province to make similar demands, but the board did not pay heed to it.

Afterwards, the board made a Rs100 million deficit budget which the officer also objected to on the grounds that it contained overloading of allocation of funds. “And if the allocations were not corrected, the BoGs would have to reallocate funds by the end of the financial year.”

The board did not agree to the suggestion, and the officer asked it to record his objections in the minutes of the meeting. The minutes issued later were without objections.

Mr Ranjha attended the meeting on June 7 about the budget of the health institution, and on finding that the board was reappropriating Rs650 million out of the head of salaries, reminded it of his earlier advice.

In reply, he was informed that the BoGs would be no more, as the government was going to replace these with the Boards of Management through an act of law.

When he asked for details of the financial affairs and justification of the steps he had earlier objected to, he was made to face the music by some members of the board. In the evening he learnt that he had been removed.