PHOTO: FILE
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Department ordered an inquiry against the project head Dr Sahib Gul after receiving complaints from employees of the project who alleged that Dr Gul had demanded money from the project employees.
Subsequently, the provincial government directed the K-P Health Services Director-General Dr Ayub Rose to probe the allegations.
“Regarding complaints against the management of MNCH, Dr Ayub Rose, director general health services K-P, is hereby appointed as enquiry officer to probe into the allegations levelled against the MNCH project management,” read an official letter.
The letter, issued on July 6, stated that the inquiry was being carried out to probe the illegal gratification demands as a means for recommending regularisation of MNCH staff, which has been approved by the provincial assembly through a law.
“Submit a report within 15 working days from the date of issuing this order,” read the letter issued from the office of the K-P health secretary read.
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According to details, the K-P government regularised the services of different project employees including, those of the MNCH. However, some employees claimed that the project head was allegedly demanding money from them to forward their cases.
“Services of Dr Sahib Gul, management cadre Basic Pay Scale (BS)-19, provincial coordinator, Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) programme is hereby transferred from the project and placed at the disposal of the director general health services K-P in light of the complaints against the project management,” the letter noted.
The letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, read that Dr Muhammad Saleem, who is currently heading a project on HIV and AIDS, will look after the affairs of MNCH until the inquiry is completed.
Some of the MNCH employees, who refused to share their identity for fear of being terminated, stated that the project head had raised over Rs10 million after collecting money from around 70 per cent of the project’s employees. The remaining 30 per cent, he said, were still holding out.
“Those who have not paid [Dr Gul] are victimised and threatened,” a project employee shared with The Express Tribune, adding, “Many staffers have been transferred and at the same time are told their services will never be regularised.”
The MNCH employees have also written to the Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar, urging his intervention. In their application, they claimed that the project head was calling employees and telling them it was he [the project head] who was behind regularisation of their services.
Dr Gul, however, has refuted all allegations, terming them as a conspiracy against him.
“There is nothing in the allegations and I am clear,” Dr Gul told The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2018.
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