PESHAWAR: The health department has ordered the authorities concerned to stop selection of faculty members and launched probe into the process of short-listing of candidates by the Board of Governors of Gomal College of Dentistry, Dera Ismail Khan.
Advertisement
image/svg+xml Openclipart Close Button 2013-09-18T11:23:45 A round black close button with a white, thick, X in the center. https://openclipart.org/detail/183568/close-button-by-henrikhoff-183568 henrikhoff black close button cross icon white x
On Monday, the health department directed the BoG to withhold the final selection process for the appointment of candidates against various posts of professors, associate professors, assistant professors in operative dentistry, prosthodontics, periodontology, orthodontics, oral medicines, oral biology and tooth and morphology, science of dental materials, community dentistry, oral pathology, paediatric dentistry and dental education and research and senior registrars in oral and maxillofacial surgery in Gomal College of Dentistry, the medical teaching institution of Dera Ismail Khan.
The BoG of the college has been instructed to stop the process of appointment till the outcome of the inquiry for which a three-member committee has been tasked to furnish report to the health department.
Forms panel to probe short-listing of candidates
The panel headed by Dr Shahid Yunis, additional director-general health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Prof Jawad Ahmad, convener of admission committee of Khyber Medical University, and Dr Suhailur Rehman, the deputy of secretary MTI health secretariat, has been assigned to complete the report within 15 days.
Article continues after ad
A health department notification said that the committee would verify the qualifications, experience and suitability of the shortlisted, selected and rejected candidates for the positions. “The panel will pinpoint irregularities, if any, in the process,” it added.
Sources in health department said that health adviser to caretaker chief minister placed ban on appointments, promotions, termination, procurement and awarding fresh tenders in all the MTIs of the province in May. According to it, the Board of Governors of the MTIs had been asked to comply with the directives but there were reports of violations due to which the department appointed the committee to probe the matter.
Sources said that there were issues in all 10 medical teaching institutions in the province regarding violation of the government’s directives. They said that all the responsible people would face action. Even a ban was imposed by Election Commission of Pakistan on fresh appointments but the MTIs flouted the same and continued to pursue interviews for appointments and tenders and procurements, they added.
They said that some MTIs had also been instructed to explain their positions with regard to appointments and promotions to senior positions.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government passed the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, and subsequently extended it to some teaching hospitals and their affiliated medical and dental colleges in the province.
Under the new law, MTI-covered hospitals and colleges slipped away from the control of health department and were managed by respective BoGs, which received one-line budget from the government and spent the same in line with their needs.
The BoGs were authorised to abolish posts and create new ones without the approval of the government. However, later the architect of the law introduced some amendments by virtue of which the chief minister was authorised to remove the BoGs chairmen or members and order inquiries into violation of rules and regulations, they said.
“Now, the health department has started inquiries against the MTIs. The caretaker government has only replaced two BoGs at Ayub Teaching Hospital and Abbottabad Medical College, Abbottabad, and Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, for their affiliation with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre while eight boards exist,” said sources.
Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023