PESHAWAR: The provincial government has appointed chairmen of the Board of Governors of medical teaching institutions and removed members of Policy Board.

According to a notification, health department has appointed chairpersons of eight medical teaching institutions (MTIs). The notifications in this regard were issued on June 20 but made public on Tuesday.

“In exercise of powers conferred under Sub-Section-6 of Section-5 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institution Reform Act, 2015, (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act No. IV of 2015) (amended from time to time), the chief minister Khyber of Pakhtunkhwa is pleased to select Dr Nausherwan Burki as chairperson as Board of Governors for medical teaching institution Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, with immediate effect in the best public interest,” says the notification.

Similar notifications were also issued regarding the selection of chairpersons of BoGs of other medical teaching institutions. Retired Maj Gen Amjid Fahim has been appointed chairman of BoG of Hayatabad Medical Complex, Taimoor Shah of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Prof Noorul Iman of Qazi Hussain Ahmad Memorial Complex Nowshera, retired Maj Gen Salahuddin Qasim of Bacha Khan Medical Complex Swabi, Prof Arshad Javaid of Mardan Medical Complex Mardan, Prof Abid Jameel of Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad and Dr Saeedullah Shah of Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital Bannu.

Notifications issued on June 20 were made public on 25th

Health department also removed all three members of MTI Policy Board with immediate effect. Through a separate notification, Prof Ziaul Islam, the chairman of Policy Board, was removed along with two members of the board, Prof Mohammad Hafizullah and Prof Azar Rashid.

The government is likely to appoint Prof Nausherwan Burki as chairman of Policy Board soon, according to sources.

They said that chairpersons of BoGs of Peshawar Institute of Cardiology and Mufti Mahmood Teaching Hospital Dera Ismail would be announced later. The PTI government has completed the process of removal of the members of MTI BoGs and Policy Board, who were appointed by caretaker setup in March last year.

Most of the newly-appointed members also served in the last PTI government. Prof Abid Jameel, a former head of oncology at HMC, remained caretaker health minister but resigned after developing differences with the government over the issue of purchase of cancer drugs for HMC.

The new BoGs consist of experienced people including Prof Noorul Iman, a former special secretary health and dean of Khyber Medical College, Prof Arshad Javaid, a former vice-chancellor of Khyber Medical University, and some retired army officers, who also held these positions in the previous government of PTI.

The removal and replacement of MTI BoGs had become a burning issue for the new government and it was expected that PTI would show them the door soon after assuming powers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the matter lingered on and pressure was put on the government to remove them to pave way for resumption of reforms agenda in MTI-covered hospitals and their affiliated medical and dental colleges.

It took almost four months to replace BoGs of medical teaching institutions. The caretaker government had removed BoGs within a month. The PTI government passed Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act in 2015 under which the institutions went into control of BoGs from health department.

Members of BoGs, taken from private sector, work on voluntary basis but have immense powers due to which the boards have assumed a lot of importance.

Meanwhile, many of the members and chairpersons of BoGs have stopped coming to their respective institutions after their removal.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2024