LAHORE: The ‘puzzled health authorities’ called another crucial meeting today (Tuesday) for the final decision on the regular appointment of vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences, Lahore.

Headed by health minister Prof Jawad Sajid Khan, the meeting will be attended by secretary health and all three members of the search committee.

The search committee had interviewed over three dozen candidates some two months back and formed a panel of three for appointment of one of them as the regular VC of the UHS.

An official said the important meeting was called after the appointment process hit a snag when a question mark was raised on the selection of Prof Javed Akram for the vacant slot of the health sciences university due to an inquiry pending against him.

Prof Akram, the former principal Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC) Lahore and former VC of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad, had secured top position in the interviews held for the regular VC of the UHS. The two other candidates were Prof Syed Muhammad Owais and AIMC former principal Prof Mahmood Shaukat. Consequently, the panel of the abovementioned three senior medics was formed and the summary was forwarded to the chief minister for final consideration.

However, the official said, the process suffered a dent when the former health secretary Najam Shah put an ‘adverse note’ on the summary mentioning that the appointment of Prof Javed Akram as regular VC for the UHS may be considered in the light of the inquiry pending against him.

The chief justice of Pakistan had ordered the Punjab government to initiate afresh process for the selection of VCs of six medical universities of the province, holding the previous appointments illegal, the official said.

The government accordingly worked on the matter and completed the process of five of them by making appointment of new VCs.

The UHS was the second after the King Edward Medical University Lahore for which the search committee completed the interviews and sent a panel two months back, he said.

On Monday, the health department issued a notification of new VC of Faisalabad Medical University, appointing principal of Khawaja Safdar Medical College Prof Zafar Chaudhry as its head. However, the UHS Lahore is the only one which was facing many controversies owing to the adverse note of the previous health secretary.

Since then, many meetings of the search committee and the health department have been convened to exclusively resolve the issues of the UHS VC.

The health minister a couple of weeks back proposed to the chief minister to either call the three candidates, interview them and take final decision for the posting of the next UHS head.

The CM sent back the summary to the health authorities, directing them to reconstitute another committee to discuss the panel in the light of the ‘adverse note’ regarding Prof Javed Akram.

The search committee which met on Monday remained inconclusive. It decided to call another big meeting to take a final decision in this regard today (Tuesday).

The health minster confirmed to Dawn that the meeting would take ultimate decision on merit.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2018