Health secretary transferred after much ado

‘Bane of doctors’ to lead Public Prosecution Department.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government has transferred Fawad Hasan Fawad from the post of Health Department secretary, apparently paying heed to complaints from several quarters about the abrasive District Management Group (DMG) officer.

Fawad has now been posted secretary of the Public Prosecution Department. He was replaced as Health Department secretary by Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, a DMG officer in BS-20 who was previously heading the Livestock and Dairy Development Department.

Fawad was a relatively junior officer (BS-19) heading the second largest department in the provincial administration and often had to deal with senior officials like professors and vice chancellors in teaching hospitals and universities.

Officials said that Fawad was unpopular for his aggressive style and his tendency towards micromanagement. They said that he had centralised all procedures in the Health Department, demanding that all correspondence from the department be stamped with the official seal in his presence, a great irritant for junior staff. When he joined the department, Fawad brought his core staff from previous postings.

Fawad was attending a senior management course at the National Management College without having relinquished the charge of health secretary, which was a violation of policy and training rules.

Senior officials also questioned procurements made by Fawad for flood relief and rehabilitation work and for six mobile health units. He allegedly made single source purchases of medicines and ambulances, ignoring Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

This was Fawad’s fourth transfer since April 2008. He was posted secretary of the Services and General Administration Department in April 2008, after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz swept to power in the Punjab in the general elections. He was replaced in November the same year because of run-ins with senior officers.

He was posted secretary of the Communication and Works Department, but was sent on leave in February 2009 after getting into a dispute with a powerful family from southern Punjab. He returned to the post in March 2009, but was removed again in February 2010.

During his time at the department, engineers, contractors and labourers went on strike over arrests and suspensions allegedly instigated by Fawad.

On March 1, junior doctors employed by the government went on strike demanding better pay.

The doctors grew increasingly unhappy with the health secretary, who was negotiating with them on behalf of the Punjab government, and demanded his removal. The chief justice of the Lahore High Court, taking suo motu notice of the strike, questioned why Fawad still had the job.

Several attempts at reaching Fawad for his comments were unsuccessful.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2011.