Headless institutions: SC tells PIMS to appoint administrator

Top court annoyed that professional doctors have been tasked with administrative duties

ISLAMABAD: The top court on Tuesday declared that affairs of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital cannot be run by the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).

The Supreme Court has instructed that an executive director should be appointed to the hospice to manage its affairs while summoning secretaries of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Ministry of Health and the Attorney General for Pakistan on Friday to explain delays in appointing administrators in Islamabad-based government hospitals.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, heard the suo moto case on corruption at the Polyclinic Hospital on Tuesday.

It declared that according to the SZABMU Act, the university cannot operate the hospital and that an official should be appointed through Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) to head it.

Furthermore, the court ruled that employees of PIMS fall under the Civil Servants Act.

The apex court was informed that eight health institutions in the federal capital are without administrators and their affairs are being run by acting-heads, who are basically senior doctors with extra responsibilities.

Ayesha Farooq, additional secretary CADD, told the court that after the 18th Amendment, the subject of health had been devolved to the provinces.

She added that a committee, headed by Advisor to Prime Minister Khawaja Zaheer, was to frame the rules for PIMS while the vice-chancellor of SZABMU would be the new executive director of the hospital..

Dr Waqar Aftab, the petitioner, claimed that CADD has been misguiding the court because PIMS has its own set of rules.

He said before the 18th Amendment, PIMS was attached to health ministry and that the authorities were deliberately delaying the appointment of an executive director to the hospital.

CJP Jamali lamented that loopholes are created in the system to prevent appointments on merit. Expressing his annoyance that professional doctors have been assigned administrative duties, he said that everything remains in the air.

Additional Attorney General Amir Rehman informed the court that they had put out newspaper advertisements for the post of executive director, but had not received any response. Hence, they had advertised the post again.

The case was subsequently adjourned till Friday (September 30).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2016.