Islamabad - Ministry of Capital Administration And Development Division (CADD) has withdrawn the name of acting head Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for the post of Executive Director (ED) of the hospital after the Prime Minister’s(PM) office raised concerns over his qualification, said an official on Wednesday.
The official said that PM office said that Dr. Amjad Mehmood holds a diploma with only a minor in health which is not equivalent to a Master Degree in Public health.
The official said that CADD earlier submitted the summary of the acting ED for permanent appointment with the certificate of Diploma in Public Health (DPH) but, the PM office returned the summary with objections.
The letter issued by PM office said that “Before the case is submitted to the Prime Minister for his orders and without reference to the merits for contention of CADD at para 11, the following needs to be addressed immediately”.
The letter said that rules require a self contained, concise and objective summary for orders of the PM. None of the above criteria appears to have been followed in the present case. According to the letter, CADD has placed on record the certificate purportedly issued by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) with regards to the level of qualification of Raja Amjad Mehmood.
The certificate also does not bear the name of signatory and has been referred back to PMDC for clarification and verification, said letter.
As per letter, communication to PMDC placed in the summary, it is clear that response from PMDC has not been received and no subsequent efforts were made by CADD during last one month to obtain the same. Surprisingly, in the summary CADD has reiterated its proposal without certifying that the present recommendee is either eligible or possess the qualification required for this assignment.
The letter recommended CADD to make sure that a precise, clear and unambiguous proposal with requisite clarification and certification from PMDC, available on record, is submitted after due process. While doing that, CADD shall also ensure that this is done in shortest possible time of the observations of Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan in this case.
The official added that CADD step backed from resending the name of acting ED who is also on deputation from Punjab government at federal hospital and sent three senior most names from the regular employees of PIMS.
The official said that three names sent in the new summary to PM house include Dr. Batool, Dr. Iqbal Memon and Dr. Anjum, and all three are from clinical side.
The official also added that CADD ministry has submitted a report, prepared on the directions of SC, regarding appointment of medical professionals on administrative and clinical sides.
The court earlier had ordered to appoint the officials with administrative abilities as heads of the departments in government hospitals.
Additional Secretary CADD Jamal Yousuf talking to The Nation said that CADD has finalized the names of the senior medical officers from the regular cadre. He said that CADD shortlisted the names of the officials from the available choice.
He added that hospitals are already facing shortage of medical staff.
After the separation of PIMS from Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) the hospital is being run on adhoc basis as CADD has not appointed the permanent head of the hospital.
Earlier, CADD also failed in implementing the report prepared on the directions of SC regarding repatriation of medical officials absorbed in federal capital hospitals including PIMS, Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) hospital.
The report had identified 33 officials from the health departments of other provinces who were to be recommended but CADD shelved the case for more than one year.
