ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has appointed Dr Asad Hafeez the first vice chancellor (VC) of the Health Services Academy (HSA).

A notification issued on Jan 13 stated: “The president of Pakistan, being chancellor of the academy, has approved the appointment of Dr Asad Hafeez as first VC of HSA.”

After the HSA (Restructuring) Act 2018 was passed by the Parliament and published in the Gazette of Pakistan in May 2018, the academy got the status of degree awarding institution. As a result, the HSA Islamabad Ordinance 2002 stood repealed.

HSA is a public sector training institute that offers postgraduate programmes in public health, including PhDs and MSc degrees in Public Health and a masters in Health Economics and Management.

At present, more than 2,000 students have graduated from the academy.

The academy was given the status of a degree awarding institution by an act passed by parliament

When contacted, Dr Hafeez said that there is currently no public health university in Pakistan.

“The goal is to convert the HSA into a public health university. Currently, the academy is a degree awarding institute. It has only two departments i.e. Public Health Department and Health Economics. We will establish a number of new departments to make it a university,” he said.

He said the focus in Pakistan was on clinical sciences but other countries focus on research work and institutions such as Howard University and Johns Hopkins University have established institutes.

“We will provide a platform to all stakeholders, even veterinary scientists, for research work. Moreover, as we have got independent status so it will become easy to provide resources. We will also focus on health diplomacy and nutrition sciences. However, it will take some time as we will establish a team,” Dr Hafeez said.

An official from the Ministry of NHS said that in the past the senior-most post in the HSA was of a director and Dr Asad Hafeez was working as HSA director since the early 2000s. However, in May 2018 HSA was converted into degree awarding institution through the ‘HSA Restructuring Act’, creating a post for the VC.

“It was mentioned in section 42 of the act that a search committee would nominate three candidates for the post of VC to the president, but according to the same act first ever VC would be nominated by the ministry. In 2018, the health ministry moved a summary to the presidency, through the Prime Minister Office, for the appointment of VC and it was proposed that Dr Asad Hafeez should be nominated as VC,” he said.

“However, the summary was returned with the suggestion to send a panel of candidates so the names of Dr Hafeez, Brig Aamer Ikram and Dr Atif Rehman were sent to the presidency. Even that summary was rejected and the ministry was advised to move a fresh panel,” he said.

The ministry official said that Dr Hafeez would quit as NHS director general to concentrate on his new assignment.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2020