ISLAMABAD   -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday granted more time to Establishment Division to submit its reply in a petition filed against implementation of Medical Teaching Institute Ordinance (MTI). 

A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani conducted hearing of the petition filed by the doctors and paramedical staff of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).  During the hearing, the counsel for Establishment Division requested the court to grant some more time to submit its response in this matter.  Acceding to his request, the IHC bench deferred the hearing till April 5 while extending its stay order of not taking any adverse action against the PIMS employees.  The counsel for the petitioner appeared before the court and adopted the stance that PIMS was built in 1969 and then the hospital was given the status of a university through an Act. 

He stated that the government had issued Ordinance to privatise PIMS. He added that the step was taken to change the structure of the hospital and the ordinance would affect the rights of PIMS staff.  Justice Kayani inquired from the counsel that whether the status of the civil servants of PIMS under the Act would not be changed. The petitioner’s counsel said that the government brought the Federal Medical Teaching Institute Ordinance after the Act. 

Then the court asked that whether the Act was repealed by the Ordinance. At this, Advocate Abbasi adopted the stance that the Civil Servants Rules and Regulations were changed through the ordinance. The members of the board of governors were political people. 

The bench asked the petitioner to clarify that whether they admit Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University Act and disagreed with the ordinance. It also instructed the lawyer to read the MTI Ordinance and said that it meant that the same institution would be now operated under two laws. 

The court noted that under this ordinance all the status of the civil servants there had been changed. The bench further remarked that the employees of PIMS could not go anywhere else. 

In this matter, the petitioners moved the petition through their counsel Mudassar Khalid Abbasi Advocate and cited federal government, Ministry of Health, Establishment Division, and Chairman Medical Teaching Institute as respondents.