On SC orders: Govt appoints permanent heads for PIMS, Polyclinic

CADD issues notification after securing PM’s nod

ISLAMABAD: Despite a ban on new recruitments and appointments, the government on Thursday named permanent heads of two key health centres in the capital.

The Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) on Thursday issued notifications stating that Dr Raja Amjad Mahmood had been appointed as the new executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). Dr Shahid Hanif, it said, had been appointed as the head of the Federal Government Services Hospital (Polyclinic) Hospital.

Both officials are working in basic pay scale grade-20.



The appointments, the government explained, were in line with directions issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The hospitals had been directed to appoint chiefs to ensure that the hospital management was more organised.

Hearing cases on the working of hospitals in the capital, the top court had expressed displeasure over the temporary appointment of officials on ad hoc basis on administrative positions in government hospitals of Islamabad.

Last month, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar directed the relevant authorities to appoint credible officials on the positions, warning them that the alternative was that the court would resort to making the appointments themselves.

On April 5, the court gave the government a 15-day deadline to secure approval from the prime minister for these appointments.



With that deadline set to expire on Friday, the government decided to make permanent the temporary charges handed to the senior-most officials at these hospitals.

According to officials, a permanent head has been appointed to the Polyclinic after more than two years. The Pims, on the other hand, got one after eight years.

Earlier, CADD had sent summaries to the premier with names of the officials from both administrative and clinical cadre for appointments. The candidates were asked to remain on standby for interviews.

But then the State Minister for CADD Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and CADD Secretary held a meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and finalised the names without the interviews.

A CADD spokesperson explained that the premier had considered the administrative experience and seniority of the candidates, especially those already holding acting charges in their respective organisations. Abbasi thus gave the go-ahead to appoint them on a regular basis.



Not out of the woods

The appointment of the Pims chief, however, is still subject to final outcome of a deputation case pending against him in the apex court, the notification says.

A case of doctors appointed on deputation basis from provinces and then merged in the hospital is still being heard in the apex court.

Justice Nisar hearing the issue of deputed officials last month had said that until a final decision is made on the repatriation of health officials who were merged in federal hospitals, no one will be sent back to their parent department.

Many doctors working in different hospitals were not repatriated despite court orders even as officials of other departments were sent back to their parent institutions.

A CADD report presented in the court had identified these employees into five categories and recommended to repatriate all health professionals to their parent departments except those lady doctors who fall under the wedlock policy.

But the doctors have requested the court to constitute a new committee comprising of senior retired doctors and retired judges of the Supreme Court who can interpret the judgment of apex court.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2018.