LAHORE: The Punjab government has bypassed the laid-down procedure before appointing the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore.

The government issued on Wednesday a notification of the appointment of Professor of Cardiology Dr Saqib Shafi Sheikh as new CEO of the PIC for a period of three years or till superannuation .

An official privy to the information said several ‘mandatory’ procedures were ignored before completing the process.

He said the health authorities restricted the appointment process to some senior medics to facilitate a certain number of candidates while denying many others the chance to contest for the PIC slot.

He said an advertisement for the vacant position of head of any public sector teaching institute is a major requirement to invite a maximum number of applications before filling the slot. However, it was shocking for many that the highly important seat was not advertised, depriving other senior medics of the chance to contest for the slot.

Post not advertised, BoM and search committee ignored

Secondly, he said, the Punjab government had notified a five-member search committee on March 27 this year giving it a mandate for the selection of principals of medical colleges/ heads of the institutions of the specialized healthcare & medical education department, Punjab.

The notification reads: “consequent upon the approval of the chief minister/competent authority the committee is constituted for the selection of heads of medical institutions.” It further says the health minister is chairman while the health secretary, former Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Mehmood Shaukat, professor of surgery (retired) Dr Javed Gardezi and the vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, are its members.

The search committee was also bypassed as neither it made selection of the candidates nor it was allowed to meet to discuss the issue which purely fell under its domain.

Some members also confirmed to Dawn that no meeting of the search committee was called for the selection of the candidates for the in-question slot of the PIC.

Instead of involving the committee, the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Department itself selected names of 10 candidates from the officially-issued seniority list of senior medics and sent them to the chief minister for final selection

The official said Chief Minister Usman Buzdar called only five of them for interview. They included Prof Dr Zubair Akram, professor of cardiology and head of the cardiac unit of Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, who is the senior most in the list of senior cardiologists/cardiac surgeons serving in major medical institutions all over the province, professor of cardiac surgery of the King Edward Medical University Prof Raja Pervez Akhtar, head of cardiology department, King Edward Medical University, Prof Saqib Shafi, professor of cardiac surgery at PIC Dr Zafar Tufail and professor of cardiology at the Multan Institute of Cardiology Dr Ijaz Ahmad.

Of them, Prof Ijaz refused to contest for the slot citing some personal reasons. Interestingly, neither Health Minister Prof Dr Yasmin Rashid nor Health Secretary Saqib Zafar were present at the time when the CM interviewed the candidates which was an unusual practice. It has been a practice in the past that the health minister and health secretary would facilitate the CM in selection of the most suitable candidate because they know well the profile and competence of the senior medics.

Similarly, the 500-bed PIC is an autonomous institute and a Board of Management runs its administrative affairs.

The Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act has clearly defined that the selection of head of any public sector institution would be made from the panel of three senior medics recommended by the BoM of the institute concerned.

The section 7 of the Act reads, “The Government shall appoint a whole time Principal or, as the case may be, Head of the Medical Institution from the Teaching Cadre possessing such qualifications and on such terms and conditions, notwithstanding anything contained in any law, as it may determine, from a panel of three individuals recommended by the Board”.

The health authorities also ignored this mandatory procedure while making appointment of new CEO of PIC.

The security clearance of Prof Saqib Shafi was also not sought from the concerned agencies despite the fact that he was going to assume a highly sensitive position and he was facing inquiries in cardiac stent scandal.

It was further shocking for many in the medical community when Prof Saqib Shafi assumed the PIC charge in the presence of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and office-bearer of Pakistan Medical Association, Punjab, Dr Azeemuddin Lakhvi and former principal secretary to the CM and presently Secretary Higher Education Raheel Siddiqui.

The health department confirmed that the PIC seat was neither advertised nor the health minister and health secretary were present when the CM interviewed the candidates.

“It is prerogative of the CM and he can conduct interviews in the absence of the health officials,” says Special Health Secretary Mian Shakeel Ahmad.

“As there were a certain number of senior cardiologists/cardiac surgeons, the department sent directly the names of 10 top medics to the CM for selection of one of them instead of engaging the selection committee”, said Mr Shakeel.

Talking to Dawn, he further said that obtaining security clearance from agencies about the newly-appointed head of the PIC was not mandatory.

He also expressed his ignorance about any inquiry pending against Mr Saqib Shafi regarding the cardiac stent scandal saying that the selection of new PIC chief had been made on merit, no matter he is fourth in the seniority list of senior cardiologists/cardiac surgeons.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019