PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Friday suspended several notifications of the provincial government of appointing new chairman of board of governors (BoGs) of different medical teaching institutions (MTIs) in the province on June 20.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad directed the provincial government to submit detailed replies to several petitions filed by former members and chairmen of BOGs of different MTIs.

The bench was hearing multiple petitions also including contempt pleas by some of the petitioners claiming that by appointing chairmen of BoGs of different MTIs, the respondents including the health secretary had violated an earlier of the court retraining the government from appointing the chairmen.

The petitioners include former members/chairmen of BoGs of MTIs including Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, and Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex, Nowshera.

The petitioners had initially challenged the government intended move of their removal and the court had on June 13 ordered the government not to pass any final order on the matter regarding the expected removal of petitioners and appointment of new chairman/members of BoG on the recommendation of search and nomination council.

Following the court order it surfaced that the government had already issued notifications on June 11 through which several of the petitioners had already been removed from their posts.

The petitioners alleged that the said orders were back-dated and were issued to frustrate the court order.

Subsequently, on June 20 the government issued several other notifications of appointing new chairmen of BoGs of different MTIs.

Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran, Sangeen Khan, Rahmanullah Shah, Habib Anwar and other lawyers appeared for the petitioners, whereas Advocate General Shah Faisal Uthmankhel represented provincial government.

On court notice, the recently transferred health secretary Mahmood Aslam also turned up.

The bench directed the former health secretary to submit his reply in the contempt petitions.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner Dr Umer Ayub Khan, former chairman of BoG of Khyber Teaching Hospital, and stated that his client was appointed as the chairman of the BoG in 2023 and he had taken several steps for reforming the hospital.

He stated that the petitioner then came to know that soon they would be replaced after which he had approached this court.

He stated on June 13 the advocate general had informed the court that so far no order adverse to the interest of the petitioner had been passed and the petition was premature.

However, he stated that after the order was issued, provincial government issued back-dated notifications purportedly of June 11 through which the petitioner was removed from the said post.

The bench inquired from the AG that why on June 13 he had told the bench that the petitions were premature as no adverse action was taken against the petitioners.

The AG stated that on that date he was not aware about issuance of the notifications regarding the removal of the petitioners as members of the BoG. He stated that he was present in the courtroom in connection with some other case when the matter was taken up for hearing by the bench.

Justice Arshad Ali observed that being a responsible law officer he should have sought information from the government before giving any information to the court.

Dr Umer Ayub also addressed the bench stating he was removed through a back-dated notification which was evident from the fact that the order was purportedly issued on June 11 and was published on June 14.

He stated that even on June 12 the provincial health minister had also visited KTH and met him, but he had not told him that he had been removed.

The AG stated that contempt of the court had not been committed as the June 20 orders of the government were not final as those were not published in the official gazette.

The bench then decided to suspend the June 20 orders of the provincial government till further order.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2024