NAB asked to probe illegal appointments, corruption at KTH

Accountability body urged to take notice of officials holding dual offices

PESHAWAR: The apex anti-corruption watchdog has been asked to look into the alleged illegal appointments and financial misgivings in the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

In this regard, staff from the medical teaching institution (MTI) have filed an application with the regional bureau of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Peshawar.

The application, filed by senior medical officer Jamshed Saeed, states that the hospital was being run in violation of the MTI Act 2015.

It points out that some senior KTH officials, including members of its board of governors, were holding dual offices, in violation of the rules.

The application, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, reads that civil servants must resign from their posts before joining the teaching institution — as per the MTI Act.



However, it alleged some officials including the medical and hospital directors at KTH are continuing to work while keeping their civil administration jobs.

It alleged that the KTH medical director was not only running the affairs of the facility but was also teaching at the Khyber Medical College.

As a result, his students were suffering.

“He [Medical director KTH] should be immediately dismissed from service for his fraudulent act of holding dual offices and drawing salary ever since he was appointed as the medical director of KTH,” Saeed requested in his application.



The application further stated that the hospital’s director and secretary for the board of governors too were holding dual offices.

The hospital’s director, it said, had not resigned from his civil post. Moreover, he had submitted an application requesting extraordinary leave for a period of three years. That, Saeed argued, too was was against the rules since he had previously availed the leave between 2004 and 2011.

On the secretary for the board of governors, the applicant told NAB that the secretary not only maintained his civil servant post but also received Rs67,000 from KTH.



Moreover, Professor Dr Mukhtiar Afridi, who resigned after joining as the Medical Director of Lady Reading Hospital, has returned and his resignation has been withdrawn.

A man had been appointed as nursing director for female nurses. Saeed claimed that this appointment too was in violation of the rules since the incumbent lacked basic nursing education qualifications nor had he completed seven years of teaching apart from completing the requisite tenure for administrative experience.

Moreover, it stated that Dr Zafar Afridi was holding four different offices at the facility, including that of blood bank officer, in-charge litigation, accommodation chairman and above all, the non-existing post of director administration.

It further alleged that the MTI at KTH was being used as a private health facility for generating money from patients.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2018.