Doctors’ plea: New posts created to ‘facilitate petitioners’

Court adjourns hearing of regularisation petition.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Friday adjourned till April 4 the hearing of a case about regularisation of doctors in service after it was informed by the Punjab government that the chief minister had approved 198 new posts in the Health Department for the purpose.

The court was informed that the new posts were being created to regularise the services of assistant professors and senior medical officers currently employed on contract basis.

A summary submitted by the government in the court of Justice Umer Ata Bandial stated that 70 to 80 assistant professors and 90 senior medical officers, not regularised in 2009, were being regularised now. The summary stated that 79 cases of associate professors and professors (working on contract basis) were being sent to the Punjab Public Services Commission (PPSC) in this regard.

The report said the PPSC would interview these doctors and that no new candidates would be considered for these vacancies.

The Heath Department, the report said, had constituted a committee comprising the regulation secretary and the services secretary to decide the seniority order of more than 6,000 doctors who had been regularised since 2009.

The counsel for the Health Department told the court that 50 per cent quota would be fixed for the promotion of senior registrars as assistant professors. The judge appreciated the steps taken by the Punjab government and told the petitioners to file their responses at the next hearing in case of any objections.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2011.