Islamabad-The administration of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court (SC) has finally repatriated two officials of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) to their parent departments.

According to a notification available to The Nation, Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood who was working as joint executive director of the hospital in BPS-20 has been repatriated to his parent department i.e. health department, government of Punjab. Similarly, Assistant Director Dr Mutahir Shah has been relieved from his duties and sent back to the health department, Baluchistan.

The notification has been issued following the direction of ministry of capital administration division & development (CADD) to implement the orders issued previous year by the SC.

A month ago, a resident of the federal capital Muhammad Shafi Hamid had pleaded before a three-member bench of the SC that implementation on the orders of the court regarding this case is not being followed by the SZABMU administration because of political reasons.

The petitioner had also said in the application that officials had adopted ‘pick and choose’ policy while repatriating the officials serving in Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) after the court’s orders.

Later on September 27, the SC ordered issued the notice to concerned health departments of federal, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan governments to fix the matter in accordance with already issued orders.

Following the court’s notice, the ministry of CADD had also issued the notice to the Vice Chancellor SZABMU Javed Akram regarding compliance with the issued orders and submitting a report in this regard.

Meanwhile, National Council of Social Welfare (NCSW) yesterday held a seminar to celebrate White Cane Day to create public awareness about disabilities in humans and to involve disabled people in social life.

Chairman NCSW Dr Nadeem Shafiq headed the seminar titled ‘The Persons with Disabilities and Our Social Responsibilities’ while representatives of civil society and NGOs, and students also attended the activity.

Addressing the seminar Dr Nadeem Shafiq said that Pakistani disabled persons are playing positive role in the development of the country in every field.

“It is our responsibility to empower the persons with disabilities as they can become effective contributing members of the society,” he said. He also maintained that the government is also partner in the global movement for the betterment and empowerment of the disabled persons.

The chairman stated, “It is our social responsibility to provide a comprehensive range of facilities for persons with disabilities from pre-natal care through education, vocational training, employment, use of information technology, assistive technology through outreach programme and support during adult life through self employment. It is our collective responsibility to facilitate the disabled persons through involving them in family and community at large.” 

Various lectures were given on the subject and also practically demonstrations of white cane were given for awareness of the participants.