LAHORE: The Punjab Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education department has reconstituted the Boards of Management (BoMs) of six leading teaching institutes of the province.

The selection of members is in stark violation of laid-down rules as each BoM is supposed to have two females. The department picked the names, sent them to the provincial cabinet and the chief minister who granted approval.

“The Board of Management shall have six non-official members [2] [including at least two women] from amongst eminent retired professors of medical colleges, renowned retired doctors from the general cadre, management experts/retired civil and military officers, distinguished citizens, notable jurists and financial experts,” reads the Punjab Medical and Institutions Act 2003.

An official privy to the development said the act declares each BoM principal governing body of an institution, showing its significance in taking all high-profile administrative and financial decisions to ensure transparency.

He said one of the major powers of the boards is to create human resource/jobs and funds for respective institutes.

For the Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, the selected Prof Dr Mehmood Shaukat in the category of eminent retired professor of medical college, Dr Riaz Ahmad Chaudhry as renowned retired doctor from the general cadre, Irfan Ali as management expert/retired civil and military officer, Gohar Ijaz as distinguished citizen, Najeeb Faisal as a notable jurist and Sajid Yousafani in the category of financial expert.

For the Punjab Institute of Neurosciences (PINS), the department selected retired Prof Athar Javed, Dr Mahmood Salahuddin, Zahid Saeed, Imran Yaqub, Barrister Haris Sohail and Saad Eshanuddin.

For the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), the selected are retired Prof Dr Mohammad Azhar, Dr Salman Shahid, Mr Tariq Najeeb Najmi, Dr Farqad Alamgir, Mr Aurangzeb Advocate and Raheel A Siddiqui.

For the Services Institute of Medical Sciences/Services Hospital, Lahore, the department picked Prof Asad Aslam, Dr Javed Butt, Capt (retied) Javed Akbar, Nadeem Zia Peerzada, Khawaja Tahir and Javed Iqbal.

For the Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan, a major teaching institute of South Punjab, the department has selected Prof Dr Zaheer Mustafa, Dr Haq Nawaz, Ch Omar Jaffer, Mohammad Ibrahim, Malik Sajid Feroz, and Rahim Yar Khan Chamber of Commerce president Iqbal Hafeez

The mandatory requirement for the appointment of females as non-official members was witnessed in the reconstitution of the BoM of the de’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore. The department has notified two women, including Dr Zahida Sarwar and Ramla Altaf Baig as non-official members beside four male members.

For the King Edward Medical University/Mayo Hospital Lahore, the department picked only one woman for its BoM. The selected are Prof Anjum Habib Vohra, Dr Asim Hameed, Dr Mohamamd Ajmal Khan, Arifa Saboohi, Barrister Haris and Umer Zulfiqar.

Similarly, Dr Shabana Haider was appointed as a non-official member of BoM for the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI)/Lahore General Hospital. Other members are Prof Tasneem Raza, Dr Zahid Pervez, Javed Aslam, Dr Adnan Khan, and Sultan Mahmood.

The appointment of new official members of the BoMs are for a four-year term.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024