PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has rejected plea of former director general health services challenging his recent suspension by the provincial government.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Shakeel Ahmad pronounced a short order of rejecting the petition filed by Dr Shaukat Ali, who was suspended through a notification on April 26, after preliminary arguments on the matter.

The petitioner had requested the court to declare the impugned notification of his suspension issued by the health secretary as illegal and without lawful authority.

He had also sought directives of the court for the government to restore the petitioner’s previous position of posting as director general health services, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The secretary health had issued the said notification through which the petitioner was suspended with immediate effect till finalisation of an inquiry against him in a matter of transferring of a female clinical technician from MTI (Medical Teaching Institute) Bannu to MTI Dera Ismail Khan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general Shah Faisal Uthmankhel appeared for the government and opposed his plea.

He argued that the petitioner being a civil servant could not move the high court against his suspension. He stated that the petitioner had to approach the KP Services Tribunal for redressing his grievances.

He contended that there were already two other inquiries of certain wrongdoings pending against the petitioner. He added that the petition was not maintainable.

He also referred to some judgments of the superior courts in support of his contention.

A panel of some senior lawyers appeared for the petitioner and contended that the petitioner was a senior health professional and had served against several management positions in the health department.

They argued that his suspension was based on political grounds.

They stated that allegations against the petitioner of receiving bribe from the said technician for her transfer was unfounded.

They pointed out that the said technician had also given an affidavit wherein she had denied the said charges. They added that the prescribed procedure was followed in the said transfer and no illegality was committed.

They contended that the petitioner was an officer of BPS-20 and he could not be suspended by the secretary, who was inBPS-19. They added that the competent authority to issue suspension order of an officer of BPS-18 and above was the chief secretary.

The lawyers claimed that the abrupt proceedings were initiated against the petitioner because he had refused to fulfil illegal demands of some of the members of the ruling party in the province.

They stated that the petitioner had declined to appoint son of an MPA of the ruling party as director of the TB Control Programme as he was not competent to be appointed against the said post.

Because of the said reasons, they said, an organised campaign was launched against the petitioner so as to teach him a lesson.

They added that the social media pages of the said MPA clearly reflected that the impugned notification was based on political victimization rather than on merit.

They contended that the petitioner was not shy of any inquiry and would join it. However, they requested the bench to suspend operation of the impugned notification till final disposal of the petition.

When the bench inquired whether any charge sheet was issued against the petitioner or he had been informed of the allegations against him, a representative of the health department stated that no charge sheet was issued to the petitioner but had been informed of the charges against him.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2024