ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) turned sour on Wednesday after Dr Ramesh Vankwani criticised NHS minister Saira Afzal Tarar.

The meeting took place in the NHS ministry committee room, but was not on the list of meeting notices published on the National Assembly webpage.

During the meeting, Vankwani criticised the performance of secondary departments and their heads. He said that the majority of the ministry’s 19 departments are being run by the acting heads, and that the posts should be advertised.

“There are irregularities within the tuberculosis (TB) programme, but the programme head, Dr Ejaz Qadeer, has been sitting there for years,” he said.

Speaking to Tarar, Vankwani said that the minister removed Qadeer from his post before re-instating him weeks later, which he said raised serious questions.

However Tarar defended Qadeer, stating that while there may be complaints against the programme, its performance is better than many other programmes.

Vankwani said that there needs to be a uniform policy regarding appointments, because that is the only way to address poor performance. Tarar however argued that departments would perform better if committee members stopped requesting out of merit transfers and appointments.

Standing committee chairman Khalid Hussain Magsi asked Tarar to elaborate, but she refused.

“Whenever I move to improve departments, I get calls. Whenever I try to take action against officers, they get stay orders from the court,” Tarar said.

“There is no point in talking about these issues because no one takes them seriously,” Vankwani said.

TB programme head Dr Qadeer, who is an employee of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), told Dawn that he joined the programme for three years.

“After I completed the deputation period, I was asked by the ministry to either leave or get my deputation extended. I received a no objection certificate (NoC) from CADD after which my deputation was extended by two years,” he said.

Qadeer said that Vankwani has been using a vehicle registered with the TB programme in Sindh, due to which Qadeer asked him to return the vehicle. “The vehicle was returned two days ago,” he said.

Vankwani, however, disputed this claim. “I have nothing to do with the TB programme. I am a landlord, and I will move a privilege motion for wrongful blame. However, serious questions have been raised when the minister removes someone and then appoints them again,” he told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2015

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