Recruitment concerns: Court halts appointment of CEOs for four state-run hospitals

Petitioner argues hiring mechanism employed by K-P govt is ‘illegal’.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday halted the appointments of chief executive officers (CEO) for three hospitals in Peshawar and one in Abbottabad till further notice.

A PHC division bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Malik Manzoor issued the orders while hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Medical Association President Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon.

Haroon’s lawyer Advocate Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel told the bench the provincial government had published an advertisement on April 24 seeking applications for the appointment of full-time chief executives at Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Hayatabad Medical Complex (KMC) and Abbottabad’s Ayub Teaching Hospital (ATH).



“Under the rules of the NWFP Medical and Health Institutions and Regulation of Health Care Services Act, 2006 (amended 2010), the chiefs are appointed on permanent status for a three-year period. The advertisement for their appointment was published during the tenure of the interim chief minister who has no such authority,” argued Kakakhel.

He added the advertisement stated retired army officials, bureaucrats and civil officers could be appointed as CEO which was also against the law.

On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Malik Mujtaba told the court, “The provincial government has completed the process for the appointments of the CEOs and the selected individuals will soon take charge.”

The bench then ordered the government to stop the appointment process till further notice and asked it to submit a report to the court in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2013.