LAHORE: The Punjab health department has appointed a recently retired bureaucrat against a heavy salary package as the project manager of a newly created unit – Project Implementation Unit (PIU) – for the ‘capacity building of the nursing and allied health professionals’, a subject which is purely a domain of the already functional medical institutes rather an official with an administrative background.

The move comes at a time when the government launched an austerity drive due to the prevailing financial crisis. The quarters concerned have also declared it an appointment of a blue-eyed of the top health authorities.

“Consequent upon recommendations of the departmental selection committee and acceptance of offer of appointment Mr Tariq Mahmood has been hereby appointed as programme director of project implementation unit under the scheme titled capacity building for nursing & allied health professionals on a lump sum pay of Rs1,137, 500 per month,” reads the notification issued by the Punjab health department here the other day.

The development has generated widespread criticism when it transpired that the subject and the post, as is evident from the notification, are purely the domain of the universities and the colleges which are already running the same programmes since 2007.

An official privy to the information says the programme and the job assignment are designated for the health professionals with academic background like PhD, MPhil or other relevant qualifications. He says the capacity building of the nursing and allied health professionals is not the domain of a bureaucrat or the officer who has been managing administrative matters. The official adds that it is the matter related to the medical universities, colleges or the other teaching institutions.

The senior faculty members who are serving in the academic institutions have a vast experience in the relevant subject–the capacity building–and they have rendering services for the last many years, he explains.

“Presently, the University of Health Sciences (UHS) is offering 20 programmes for the capacity building of the nursing and health professionals. Of them, two are five-year while 18 others are four-year programmes to build the capacity of the nursing and allied health professionals through highly trained and qualified teaching faculty.”

According to the official, 44 public and private sector medical colleges affiliated with the UHS are also offering the same programmes.

“The capacity building of the health professionals is purely subject to the medical institutions. Currently, five other public sector medical universities are also offering the same services in the same subject/programmes other than the UHS and the 44 medical colleges.”

They include King Edward Medical University, Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Faisalabad Medical University, Nishtar Medical University and Rawalpindi Medical University.

He says raising a new unit parallel to the above-mentioned institutions would be taken as a move of the health department of wastage of public money and a wish to accommodate a retired bureaucrat.

To a question, he says Mr Tariq Mahmood has served as special secretary in the Punjab Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Department and is considered very close to the secretary health but he has nothing to do with the academic matters rather he has been managing transfer and posting and promotion cases.

Referring to a similar matter which was raised in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018, the official says that at that time the court lashed out at the then Punjab government authorities for raising a Strategic Management Unit in the health department and appointing some irrelevant officials in the unit against senior positions. The SC was of the opinion that the retired officials appointed by the government in the newly raised unit were having administrative background. The court in 2018 had declared the appointments in the presence of a large number of serving faculty members and officials against the spirits of justice.

The official lamented that the ruling elite in the health secretariat repeated the same illogical practice by raising the new unit and appointing an influential retired bureaucrat.

Dawn sent a set of queries to the spokesperson for the health secretary and the minister to seek an official version but the department representatives didn’t respond to the text messages and the calls made for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2026