NHSRC reshuffle: Of the 15 officials, six have either been transferred to their parent departments or within the ministry, while the rest have been asked to report to the Establishment Division. PHOTO: FILE
The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSRC) witnessed a massive reshuffle on Friday amid a row of charges of misappropriation against some senior officials and their poor performance.
According to sources, the reshuffling has been made in an effort to improve the performance of the ministry.
“The unsatisfactory performance of some senior officials was badly affecting the overall performance of the health sector,” Minister of State for NHSRC Saira Afzal Tarrar told The Express Tribune.
She said around 15 top officials were either sent back to their parent departments or interdepartmental postings have been made or have been asked to directly report to the Establishment Division.
“I have appointed some professionals with great expertise in the ministry and I know how to overcome loopholes in the health sector and address issues,” she said.
Sources in the NHSRC Ministry told The Express Tribune that of the 15 officials, six have either been transferred to their parent departments or within the ministry, while the rest have been asked to report to the Establishment Division.
Baseer Achakzai, who was serving as NHSRC technical director, is now the nutrition director at the National Institute of Health (NIH), NHSRC Legal Director Saleem Khan to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), and Hafiz Rab Nawaz, a section officer at the ministry, was transferred to one of its attached department.
Similarly, Malaria Control Director Dr Aslam Khan has been transferred to the NIH and Dr Safdar Rana has replaced him. Farhana Barlas, who was an assistant director, has been sent back to her parent department, Radio Pakistan.
Majeedur Rehman Malik, who worked as assistant director technical and was given an additional charge of drawing and disbursement officer in the ministry, has been sent back to the PTCL. The status of Dr Zahid Larik, who was serving as National Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), is not clear yet. His parent department is the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).
Those have been asked to directly report to the Establishment Division include Mir Rehman (BS-19), who worked in the ministry as deputy sectary, Dr Badruddin Abbasi (BS-19), who has been on leave since 2012 and is in Saudi Arabia at present, Deputy Director Omer Farooq Rana (BS-18), Section Officer Adnan, Deputy Director Azeemul Shan, Section Officer Raja Abid and Atif Sohail, who came from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and worked as director legal at the ministry, and Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood, the deputationist Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) registrar, has been sent back to the Pims.
According to the sources, Mehmood allegedly tried to hold on the position recently by conducting a controversial election.
The sources said that to achieve this, he allegedly pressured PMDC employees to submit election papers of his supporters from the Young Doctors’ Association Punjab and Islamabad after the filing date had lapsed.
The sources claimed that he declared some medical colleges ‘fake’ and refused to issue NOCs to certain colleges, despite their meeting PMDC criteria, when they refused to vote for his candidates.
Moreover, as an administrator, he was not allowed to take financial decisions, but allegedly did so anyway. He also allegedly reinstated employees who had been terminated after being found guilty of corruption and for issuing fake registration documents to some medical colleges.
When contacted, Mehmood denied all the allegations and claimed he was still working with the PMDC, despite the fact that his repatriation orders were included in the notifications.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2013.
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