PESHAWAR: Only 16 candidates have qualified the written test conducted by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission for permanent recruitment on BPS-18 administrative posts in health department.
Senior doctors in health department attributed the disappointing performance of medics due to poor academics in teaching institutions, especially private medical colleges and degree-awarding institutions in health management.
The test was held by PSC from September 16 to 19, 2025 for which 1,147 candidates had submitted applications. The commission short-listed 245 of them to appear in the examination to fill 248 posts of management cadre in health department. There is acute shortage of doctors to fill the posts of directors, district health officers and medical superintendents etc.
However, the result of the written tests announced by the commission dashed the hopes of health department to hire candidates for the positions lying vacant for many years. Officials fear that of the 16 candidates, who passed the written test, 50 per cent would be dropped in oral interview. They said that health department would be forced to re-advertise those important positions and again conduct test.
Senior medics blame private institutions for decline of medical education
They said that most of the candidates, appeared in the test, had completed their MBBS and BDS from private medical and dental colleges where merit for admission was very low compared to public sector.
Most importantly, they had done their Master of Public Health (MPH), a two-year degree and basic qualification for management positions along with MBBS or BDS, from the institutions where the desired infrastructure was non-existent, officials said.
Those candidates, who qualified the written examination, had got MPH degrees from the public sector Khyber Medical University (KMU), abroad or from Islamabad-based institutions where students were enrolled through competitions and classes were conducted regularly, they said.
Prior to KMU, the public sector Peshawar Health Services Academy offered MPH degrees that produced good health managers. The academy wrapped the programme when KMU started it.
Officials said that the written test was mostly related to public health but MPH or equivalent qualifications were mandatory for induction directly in BPS-18.
The whole test carried 750 marks, including health planning and management (200), epidemiology, health system research, public health and disease control (200) English (100) while papers of general knowledge/ every day science, current affairs, Pakistan affairs and Islamiat carried 50 marks each.
Officials said that management cadre was introduced in health department before 2010 to run administrative positions effectively. In those days, the department had few degree-holders from abroad. In order to stick to lucrative positions, those posted as health managers stared getting degrees from private institutions, they said.
It was the main reason that the department had very few qualified people to run management posts and their performance was well but most of them didn’t know about health administration, they said. There should be a through probe into MPH degrees and the institutions that offered those courses, said officials.
They said that health department desperately needed people to be appointed on management posts as currently more than 50 percent administrative positions were occupied by general cadre doctors, who were required to examine patients in hospitals.
Officials said that management positions required relevant qualification to ensure better planning and leadership role to improve patients’ care. Therefore, the department should scrutinise the degrees of all those holding management positions currently and appoint duly qualified people on those positions, they added.
Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2026
