RAWALPINDI, Dec 13: Representatives of doctors, teachers and government officials here on Friday made conflicting claims about the fate of the boards of governors on hospitals and educational institutions.
The doctors community heaved a sigh of relief after their local leaders informed them that the BoGs throughout the province had been held in abeyance.
JAC leader Dr Yasmin Rashid informed several doctors here and this reporter that the chief minister had directed that the BoGs should be held in abeyance.
Doctors received a hint from their colleagues in the provincial metropolis, engaged in parleys with the government over the issue of BoGs, that the PEOs running hospitalaffairs would also be restrained from functioning while the committee formed by the chief minister reviewed the situation.
They were further told that all their colleagues, who had either been fired or displaced, had been reinstated with immediate effect.
This news spread like wild fire in the city and most of the doctors were seen rejoicing over the developments. Sweets were distributed at several hospitals. However, later in the evening the official word was that the existing BoGs had only been restrained from taking any disciplinary action against any serving employee till the report of the commission. While for those BoGs that are yet to be notified, mostly for the colleges in Faisalabad, it was decided that their notification would be withheld till the commission came out with its final recommendations.
Regarding the reinstatements, the official version was that the affected employees would be given a chance of making a representation to the government for sympathetic consideration.
A senior functionary, privy to the developments regarding the BoGs, told this reporter on arriving in the federal capital from Lahore at night that the commission constituted under Justice Mirza might see some new entries over the next few days. The commission put up hurriedly had got an overwhelming majority of anti-BoG elements, which might be balanced by the presence of pro-BoG factor as well.
Regarding the JAC version on the holding in abeyance of the BoGs, he said, it was a disinformation campaign.
About the official plan, he said the government was in no mood to undo the entire package. “The government may not at this stage like to provoke Governor Khalid Maqbool who has put in a lot of effort to introduce this system.” Moreover, he said, certain elements in the government might also like to support the BoGs system for the “sake of greater national cause.”
