CM orders removal of Nowshera Medical College BoG chairman

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan finally took notice of the alleged irregularities and illegal appointments in the Nowshera Medical College (NMC) and its teaching hospital, Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex, and removed Gulrez Hakim Khan from his position as chairman of the Board of Governors (BoG).Sources at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat told The News that Mahmood Khan signed the summary on Wednesday to remove Gulrez Hakim from his position. The summary was dispatched to the Health Secretariat for further action.They said the chief minister was earlier a bit reluctant to take action against the BoG chairman and other issues of serious nature in Nowshera Medical College as he knew that majority of the board members, including the chairman, were appointed with the consent of ex-chief minister, Pervez Khattak. He didn’t want to annoy Pervez Khattak.“However, the chief minister was convinced that issues in Nowshera Medical College were now damaging his reputation as people suspected he had intentionally kept silent on the happenings there,” a government official privy to the developments told The News on condition of anonymity.The sources said that Dr Nausherwan Burki, the architect of health reforms of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical and Teaching Institutions Reforms Act 2015 (MTI Act) - reportedly intervened to ask the chief minister to take action against Gulrez Hakim.Many people used to give the example of NMC for the alleged gross violation of merit in key appointments, widespread reports of corruption and waste of public money.These issues are stated to have prompted the chief minister and Dr Nausherwan Burki to take action. The PTI government had passed the MTI Act 2015 and declared nine hospitals and medical colleges as MTIs managed by respective boards.The government through search and nomination committee selects members of the boards. As per the MTI Law, the BoGs of medical and teaching institutions are required to approve all decisions related to their respective institutions.In Nowshera, the chairman was accused of bypassing the board in all affairs of the institutions under his charge. Two of the BoG members in Nowshera had already resigned after accusing the board chairman of making important decisions without their consent. The remaining five members had stopped attending the BoG meetings.In the past six months, Gulrez Hakim had made several important decisions without even bothering to seek the consent of the board.The biggest question now is what will happen to the decisions made by Gulrez Hakim alone without the BoG approval.According to official sources, 192 appointments including faculty members and other positions had been made in the past six months without the nod of the board.Gulrez Hakim, a contractor by profession, was made BoG chairman last year. He had confirmed to The News that he was an old activist of the PTI in Nowshera. He is believed to be close to Pervez Khattak.Right from day one, all other BoG members became suspicious when they were stopped from selecting the chairman until Gulrez Hakim joined the BoG.After Gulrez Hakim allegedly started bypassing the BoG members and rules and regulations in important decisions relating to the medical college and hospital, the BoG members showed no confidence in him and replaced him with Malik Riaz Awan as chairman.But he went to the Peshawar Court High and got himself restored as chairman, arguing the way he was replaced was illegal. The court had reportedly directed that a legal procedure should be followed to replace the chairman. The board members stopped attending the meetings when Gulrez Hakim refused to take them into confidence in decision-making.Besides other allegations, Gulrez Hakim was also accused of appointing Dean of NMC Dr Jehangir against merit. Dr Jehangir was initially made legal advisor in presence of two other highly paid official legal advisors.The chairman also appointed Dr Anwar Wazir, a close aide to Dr Jehangir, as BoG secretary without any advertisement, scrutiny and interview.According to official sources, Dr Jehangir is stated to have encouraged Gulrez Hakim to take decisions on his own being the chairman of the BoG. “Dr Jehangir used to tell him that he does not need the board members in making decisions. The chairman, being a contractor by profession, didn’t understand the consequences of his unlawful decisions that caused heavy losses to the exchequer and the institution,” said an official.Dr Jehangir is being accused of signing a fake appointment letter as dean from the chairman when Gulrez Hakim was replaced by Malik Riaz as a result of the no-confidence motion in a backdate of March 20, 2019.After winning relief through stay order from the court on May 6, Dr Jehangir allegedly started taking protection of the chairman’s stay order misguiding and misinterpreting and again presented the same fake orders of his appointment.“Gulrez Hakim encouraged Dr Jehangir and reassured him of his full support. Dr Jehangir went to the dean’s office, broke the locks and illegally occupied the office. One can imagine what impression the budding doctors will get from such unethical and unlawful acts in the college,” opined a senior faculty member.Dr Jehangir was supposed to retire from service on June 7, 2019. Dr Jehangir is also being accused of making illegal appointments. He appointed his 13 close relatives without merit in the NMC.They are Dr Haris, his son appointed as demonstrator in BS-17, Dr Farah Deeba, his daughter, (demonstrator BS-17), Quratul Ain, daughter, (administrative officer BS-17), Dr Sobia Haris, daughter-in-law (demonstrator BS-17), Dr Sobia, family member (superintendent BS-17), Haidera relative (senior clerk BS-14), Aimal, relative (office assistant BS-16), two nieces of Dr Jehangir as office assistant in BS-16, Irfan, family member (telephone operator BS-07), Sadaqat, family member (class-1V), Tanveer, nephew (class-1V), Mehran, relative, (civil engineer), and Suleman, a relative (office assistant BS-16).According to official sources in the NMC, all of them were allegedly appointed without advertising their positions or following proper merit.This correspondent attempted to seek comments from Dr Jehangir Khan but he neither answered the phone calls nor replied to the text messages sent to his cell phone.However, Gulrez Hakim, when reached on phone, denied his removal and termed it propaganda of his opponents against him.He denied all the allegations against him, saying he had taken all the decisions on merit. “Well nobody can remove me from the chairman of BoG as the Peshawar High Court has appointed me for three years. The court had allowed me to continue my job and left it to me if I want to resign,” said Gulrez Hakim. He said he had disqualified all the BoG members after they refused to attend the board meetings continuously. Gulrez Hakim admitted that family members and relatives of Dr Jehangi rwere given jobs, but claimed all of them were appointed on merit.“The MTI Law is very clear. It directs me to appoint anyone within the institution to any position without any advertisement or approval of the board,” he argued.

from The News International - Peshawar https://ift.tt/34ljrsJ