PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday disposed of two petitions, challenging the appointment of around 2,500 doctors and nurses on a contractual basis by provincial health department.
A bench consisting of Justice Wiqar Ahmad and Justice Inamullah Khan pronounced that it would release the detailed order later.
One of the petitions was field by Malgari Doctoran, affiliated with Awami National Party, through its central president Dr Haider Ali, requesting the court to declare as illegal and set aside the entire recruitment process conducted pursuant to two impugned notifications through which respective divisional commissioners and additional commissioners were appointed as chairpersons of departmental appointment committees and scrutiny committees, respectively.
The petition requested the court to declare the two impugned notifications issued by the government on Feb 9 and Feb 26, 2026, illegal and in conflict with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department Contract Appointment of Doctors (Fixed-Pay) Rules, 2022.
Health dept has recently recruited 2,500 doctors and nurses on contractual basis
It said that scrutiny and departmental selection committees constituted under those notifications were not legally constituted and all proceedings, including scrutiny, interviews, recommendations, preparation of merit lists and selections, undertaken by them were without jurisdiction and liable to be set aside.
The petition sought the court’s orders for the government to constitute fresh scrutiny and departmental selection committees strictly in accordance with the rules.
Another petition was filed by a candidate, who also requested the court to set aside the recruitment process.
In that case, the court had granted interim relief to the petitioner on July 9 and directed respondents including the provincial health department to continue with the recruitment process; however, no final appointments should be made until the next date of hearing.
Advocates Babar Khan Yousafzai and Manzoor Bashir Tangi represented the petitioners and contended that through an advertisement published in various newspapers, the posts of doctors, dental surgeons and nurses were offered to eligible candidates.
They said that appointments were regulated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department Contract Appointment of Doctors (Fixed Pay) Rules, 2002.
They said that Rule 2(b) envisaged that the appointing authority was the provincial health secretary, however, the appointments should be made through a departmental selection committee as provided under Rule 4, which was to be chaired by regional director of health services for the region, or any other officer nominated by the secretary of the department.
Babar Yousafzai said that the department issued a notification on Feb 9, 2026, whereby divisional additional commissioners were notified as chairpersons of scrutiny committees and subsequently another notification was issued on Feb 26, 2026, whereby divisional commissioners were notified as chairpersons of departmental selection committees.
He said that the notifications purportedly derived authority from Rule 4(B) of KP Health Department Contract Appointment of Doctors (Fixed Pay) Rules, 2022, as amended in 2025.
He argued that non-relevant individuals, such as commissioners, were improperly included in scrutiny and selection committees. He contended that the advertisement was issued on Feb 26, 2026, while committee amendments took place on Mar 31, 2026, in violation of rules.
He claimed that the posts were shifted from Public Service Commission to fixed-pay contracts solely to adjust favoured individuals.
Justice Wiqar questioned the scoring criteria after noting a candidate received 19.6 marks in an interview, observing that the court had never seen such marks awarded in an interview as they should have given either a full 20 or 19.
The counsel stated that those were first mega recruitments in health department since 2016. He alleged that ineligible candidates, including those currently undergoing postgraduate training or house jobs, were selected.
He claimed that despite the scale and significance of recruitment process, respondents failed to formulate, publish or notify any transparent and uniform criteria regarding allocation of marks for additional qualification, postgraduate qualification, specialisation, MPhil degree, MPH degree and other higher medical qualification possessed by candidates.
An additional advocate general opposed the petitions, arguing that modifying the selection committee fell within provincial government’s jurisdiction and merit criteria naturally varied across different districts.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026