JPMC sacked directors reinstated on SHC’s orders till Aug 12

Bench issued notices to secretaries of health, services and general administration, other departments.

KARACHI:

Dismissing the notification sacking two Jinnah hospital directors, the high court has reinstated the two officials until August 12, this year.

Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) executive director Dr Tasneem Ahsan and joint executive Dr Seemin Jamali had gone to court against the hospital administration and the government for ‘wrongful’ suspension. The authorities had even failed to provide a reason for their suspension.

On Thursday, a larger bench did, however, tell the two senior health officers to “conduct themselves in discharge of their official duty strictly in accordance with the law”. The judges stressed that the two doctors should maintain the decorum of the “high society”.

The Sindh government removed Dr Ahsan and Dr Jamali from their posts on June 6 following a brawl between the Rangers personnel and the doctors.

They assailed, however, the decision before the Sindh High Court’s larger bench, which had restrained the Sindh government on June 30, 2011, from taking withdrawing facilities to the 150 employees of the three major public health facilities - the JPMC, the National Institute of Child Health and the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) - which were being devolved to Sindh.

On Thursday, Dr Ahsan and Dr Jamali pleaded the court to allow them to join these proceedings, as they were performing their official duties at one of the three hospitals and had been illegally removed from their posts in violation of court orders.

They pleaded the court suspend the notification of their removal and also initiate contempt proceedings against the authorities concerned for wilfully and deliberately committing contempt of court.

Headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar, the three-member bench issued notices to the secretaries of the health, services and general administration, inter-provincial coordination and other departments for August 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2013.