HYDERABAD, April 11: The medical superintendent of the local Civil Hospital has terminated services of 52 recently-appointed employees on recommendation of an inquiry committee.

The committee, formed by medical superintendent Dr Hadi Bux Jatoi, comprised Dr Mushtaq Memon as its head and Dr Khalid Qureshi, Dr Aziz Qureshi, Dr Waseem Shaikh and Abdul Hanan Shaikh as members.

Recommendations of the committee have been sent to the Sindh health minister by the hospital management. A total of 107 vacancies had been advertized in newspapers last September and 52 were selected out of 8,000 short-listed candidates for the posts of laboratory assistants, laboratory technicians and sanitary workers.

The inquiry committee in its report said that the hospital administration, then headed by Dr Shafqatullah Memon, had not obtained permission from the health department for conducting interviews. It noted that the jobs had been offered during the period when there was a ban on recruitment in government departments/ institutions.

It also found it irregular as why results of only 52 selected candidates, most of whom belonged to a particular area of the Hyderabad district, were declared.

MINISTER: Sindh Health Minister Naeem Ishtiaq has defended the sacking of 52 employees of the Civil Hospital, saying that they had been appointed by the hospital management without approval from the health department.

Talking to journalists after a visit to the hospital on Sunday, he denied having issued directives to the medical superintendent to terminate the services of the employees. He said that in other districts interviews had not been conducted and appointments had only been made in Hyderabad.

He dispelled the impression that the new medical superintendent had been appointed just to sack the employees and said that Dr Jatoi had served at the hospital in the past and his services were known to every one.

When he was told that former health adviser Noman Saigal had also sacked eight employees who were reinstated in services by the Sindh High Court, he said that Mr Saigal might have noticed some irregularity in the appointments.

PARAMEDICS: About 30 sacked paramedics of the Civil Hospital Hyderabad, under the banner of Sindhi Employees Action Committee, held a protest demonstration outside the press club on Sunday. They were protesting against the termination of their services by CHH Medical Superintendent Hadi Bux Jatoi.

Talking to newsmen, Nasir, Hameed, Khurram Leghari, Abdul Majeed, Nayab Gul and others said that their services had been terminated by the medical superintendent under the orders of Sindh Health Minister Naeem Ishtiaque.

Accusing the minister of prejudice, they said that they were sacked only because all of them were Sindhis. They said that they had been appointed strictly in accordance with law and their dismissal was a discriminatory act. They demanded that they should be reinstated in service.