K & P

Health department transfers first officer from tribal areas

Transfer came after separate status for FATA ended

Our Correspondent June 15, 2018

The administration took its first by transferring a lady health visitor from Mohmand agency to Peshawar. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK/EXPRESS

PESHAWAR: After they were merged earlier in the month, the provincial health department has taken the first administrative decision in the former tribal areas after it posted a Lady Health Visitor (LHV) from Mohmand to the district health officer in Peshawar.

Farhana Yasmeen, a resident of the provincial capital, had been employed on a contract basis and started serving in the areas previously known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

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However, she later filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court, under Article 199 of the Constitution, seeking a transfer after she had served in the tribal areas for 13 years.

The court ordered Yasmeen to appear before the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Secretary on February 2 where her appointment letter was produced. It clearly mentioned that she had been appointed by the director of health services for the tribal areas and could not be transferred, not even under the spouse and district cadre policy.

The K-P government had a policy [before K-P and Fata merger] that all those who were appointed in the previously tribal areas must resign before they can be re-appointment in the settled parts. The price of this move will be that they will have to resume service as a fresh candidate.

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In light of the policy, someone appointed in the previously tribal areas could not be transferred to the settled areas.

However, after the merger of K-P and Fata, the separate status of Fata was abolished.

This merger has benefited Yasmeen as she automatically became an employee of the K-P Health Directorate General since all the tribal agencies had now converted into districts of the province.

“In exercise of the jurisdiction granted by the 31st Constitutional amendment over the service matter of employees of erstwhile Fata who are now employees of the provincial government with the same status, the application of Farhana Yasmeen is accepted and she is posted at disposal of the district health officer Peshawar,” read a notification issued from K-P health department secretariat.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2018.