Devolution dilemma: JPMC sacked directors head to court

SHC has already told Sindh government not to meddle, point out Dr Seemin Jamali and Dr Tasneem Ahsan.

KARACHI:

The two directors of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) who were sacked on Thursday have gone to court so the decision to remove them can be termed ‘illegal’.

“We have approached the court because it has already issued a restraining order telling the provincial government that it cannot meddle in the administrative affairs of the JPMC,” one of the sacked executive directors, Dr Tasnim Ahsan, told The Express Tribune.

The Sindh government had, in fact, issued notifications on June 7, signed by a services and general administration department’s section officer, Khadim Hussain, that relieves Dr Ahsan and JPMC deputy executive director Dr Seemin Jamali of their administrative positions. They will, however, continue to work as head of the medicine and professor of pharmacology, respectively.

Until their replacements are found, the administrative affairs at JPMC are being handled by Karachi administrator Syed Hashim Raza Zaidi.



Back to the roots

On recent developments at the hospital, such as its pending status, violent protests, strikes and hooliganism, The Express Tribune interviewed the two doctors who were ousted from their administrative posts.

According to Dr Jamali, JPMC as well as the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) were federal institutions until June 30, 2011, when the three hospitals were devolved to the Sindh government - more than a year after the 18th amendment was passed. “Before this decision, the JPMC employees felt insecure about how the provincial government would deal with federal government employees,” she recalled.

This sense of insecurity prevailed given that around 80 per cent of the nearly 5,000 officers and employees at the three healthcare centres belong to other provinces due to employment quotas set for federal institutions, The Express Tribune learnt.

JPMC employees did not want to be devolved because they did not want to lose their seniority and get transferred to other institutions across the country, admitted Dr Jamali. The devolution of employees, she said, would be against the terms of services on which they were inducted.

“So around 154 employees filed pre-emptive petitions at the high court in which we received a restraining order that there will be no harm to any employees,” she said. “The hospital was devolved but we remained federal government employees.”

The hospital’s status as a federal or provincial institution is a matter still in court but, after the stay order, the employees were transferred to the Sindh government on deputation. “Even though we were still federal employees, the staff at these three institutions felt discriminated against because we were not given deputation and health allowances that we were entitled to,” she said. “Although the federal government gave instructions to the provincial government, this was never implemented in the last two years.”

Dr Ahsan pointed out that the promotions of around 74 employees were due and there were several vacancies in the past few years. “Neither have the courts announced a decision apart from a stay-order nor have the government showed seriousness in resolving the issues,” she complained, adding that the functioning of the institution has been compromised.

At present, added Dr Ahsan, the JPMC was left with only nine professors in total and a number of departments with only one professor. Several other departments, including surgery, neurology and oncology are without any professors. “Even when the court has not put a bar on promotions, the Sindh government says they cannot take up the matter since the case is in court.”

Medical universities add fuel to fire

On June 1, 2012, Sindh Medical College (SMC) was elevated to the status of a university through on ordinance, whereas the JPMC was to serve as its constituent hospital.

From there on, said Dr Seemin Jamali, the doctors at the JPMC had been teaching the medical students without any reservations but they were not ready to be under any institution other than their own. “The JPMC is the mother institution and SMC is its baby, which cannot engulf its own mother. You do not bite the hand that feeds you,” she said. At the behest of some political forces, which she refused to name, SMC was elevated to the status of a university, ignoring the fact that the proposal to make JPMC a university had already been forwarded. Dr Ahsan recalled that, during the tenure of JPMC’s former executive director Dr Rasheed Juma, the proposal to elevate JPMC to Jinnah University of Health Sciences was approved by the Higher Education Commission. “Therefore, the institution that was worthy to become a university was the JMPC instead but the project was stalled on few technical grounds,” she said.

“One day, we finally heard that SMC was declared a university and one of our professors [Dr Tariq Rafi, JPMC ENT department head] decided to become its vice-chancellor without even consulting with the JPMC director,” said Dr Jamali. “JPMC has never declined to induct any of the SMC house officers and never stopped their training,.”

Staging a coup

On Tuesday, when Dr Ahsan was scheduled to arrive from the United States, she said a group of miscreants orchestrated the ruckus on the pretext of a strike for almost three days. They exploited the situation by blaming the two top officials for their difficulties in getting salaries and promotions, she said. “They literally occupied the government property and stopped and reprimanded public servants from discharging their duties,” said Dr Ahsan. What the government probably had against the two officials were merely allegations on which actions were taken hurriedly and illegally, she pointed out.  She also held the JSMU vice chancellor and a medical officer, Dr Javaid Jamali responsible.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2013.