PESHAWAR: The health department has removed chairpersons and members of the Boards of Governors of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar and Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad as well as other hospitals and appointed new members on the recommendation of search and nomination council for a period of three years.

Prof Nausherwan Burki has been removed as chairman of BoG of LRH and Dr Asim Yousaf as chairman of BoG of Ayub Teaching Hospital and Ayub Medical College Abbottabad with immediate effect, a notification issued by health department said on Tuesday.

“In exercise of powers conferred under Sub-Section 3 of Section 5 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, the chief minister is pleased to remove Dr Nausherwan Burki as chairman/member BoG LRH on account of reasons mentioned in Sub-Section-9 of Section 5 along with other reasons, such as political affiliations, with immediate effect in the best public interest,” it said.

Dr Shahnaz Nawaz and Zarak Khan Khattak have also been removed as members of BoG of LRH. The former has also been dismissed as member of BoG of Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital, Bannu.

Prof Nausherwan Burki terms the decision illegal

Through separate notifications, the health department has removed Dr Asim Yousaf as chairman and Dr Sadiqur Rehman as member of BoG of ATH and Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, Mohammad Waleed Akhtar and Adnan Naveed Babar as members of BoG of Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical Complex and Nowshera Medical College.

Prof Zubair Khan, Prof Musa Kaleem and Mohammad Faheem Siddiqui have been appointed as members of BoG of LRH and Prof Aftab Rubani, Mushtaq Jadoon and Mohammad Ayaz Khan as members of BoG of ATH Abbottabad while Prof Jehangir Khan and Dr Habibur Rehman as members of BoG of Qazi Hussain Ahmed Medical Complex, Nowshera and Abdur Rauf as member of BoG of Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital for a period of three years on the recommendation of research and nomination council.

Prof Nausherwan Burki, the architect of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, told Dawn that the removal and replacement of members of BoGs was illegal. “We are looking at legal recourse,” he said.

Sources said that since the arrival of caretaker government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the medical teaching institutions covered by MTIRA 2015 suffered immensely because of the shortage of funds for salaries, medicines and other equipment.

They said that the law introduced by the PTI-led government in the province in 2015 was meant to grant financial and administrative autonomy to teaching hospitals and improve patient care. Before the imposition of MTIRA, these teaching hospitals were run by the health department. After the new piece of legislation came into effect, they slipped out of the control of health department and were run by BoGs, which made all the decisions.

Legal experts told Dawn that removal of BoGs’ members was likely to be struck down by the court if challenged because the caretakers had no mandate to take policy decisions.

They said that the tenure of BoGs had yet to complete. They added that many members, who were working on a voluntary basis, were likely to challenge their unceremonious removal in the court of law.

The health department should consider the relevant provisions of Section 230 of Elections Act, 2017, before taking such decisions, according to the minutes of the cabinet meeting on March 16 in which the replacement of MTI BoGs was decided.

According to the minutes, the then chief secretary explained provisions of Elections Act in the meeting and said that the caretaker government should “desist from making policy decisions as Section 230 of the Elections Act doesn’t allow it.”

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2023