CHITRAL: Dr Mujeebur Rehman is not leaving charge of the office of district health officer, Lower Chitral, despite his transfer from the post on March 18 to the offices of director general health for further posting, according to a source.

The source in the Lower Chitral DHO office told this correspondent that Dr Haiderul Mulk, DHO of Upper Chitral, had taken the additional charge on March 20 from deputy DHO Dr Saleem Saifullah who was officiating in the absence of Dr Mujeeb.

He said that Dr Mujeeb dashed to Chitral from his hometown Peshawar and claimed that he was still holding the office of DHO as he did not relinquish the charge personally to Dr Haiderul Mulk, to whom the additional charge of the office had been given in the transfer orders issued by secretary health.

The source said that an inquiry had also been initiated by the competent authority against Dr Mujeeb for illegal appointment of class-IV employees in different hospitals of both the lower and upper districts of Chitral in December last when he was holding the charge of both the districts.

When contacted, Dr Mujeeb contended that he did not receive any proper order from the competent authority regarding his transfer and he will not comply with orders received through Whatsapp, as the orders only received by post were accepted in the district accounts office.

Dr Mulk said that in the present scenario of coronavirus threat, he did not waste time and took additional charge of Lower Chitral district on the orders of the competent authority.

He said that the office of Director General of Health Services had again issued orders on March 24,directing Dr Mujeeb to relinquish the charge without any delay.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2020