PESHAWAR: Health department has sought details about the civil servants working in medical teaching institutions (MTIs) in the province after requests from the latter that the former should take back their services.
A notification issued to deans of all 10 MTIs has sought details about the number of civil servants, filled and vacant posts in their respective hospitals and colleges as per directives of competent authorities.
The one-page letter doesn’t provide further details but sources say that the issue of civil servants has been the bone of contention between health department and architects of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act (MTIRA). The latter wanted to expel all civil servants from MTIs as they were government’s employees and did not come under MTIRA, they added.
However, health department has been dragging its feet on the issue because repatriation of all civil employees would create a big problem.
Architects of MTIRA want to send back such employees to health dept
“If all the civil servants are sent back to health department, it will create a surplus pool as most of them cannot be posted in the department,” sources said.
They said that there re were scores of faculty members including assistant, associate and professors in clinical and basic science departments in MTIs. They are actually civil servants and working in the institutions well before the imposition of MTIRA.
In case of transferring out those faculty members from MTIs, the department has no institution to post them there. Therefore, they will be placed in surplus pool.
“They include highly experience faculty members like surgeons, physicians and other academic staff, whose services couldn’t be required in other hospitals because they are fit only in teaching hospitals with medical and dental colleges which have now become MTIs,” said sources.
They said that civil servants were employed by health department but now the MTIs wanted to replace them with their own employees.
There are other types of servants, who are called institutional employees. They have been recruited after 2000 by their respective teaching hospitals. MTIs have been asking civil servants to leave their positions and go to health department but such directives issued from time to time have fallen on deaf ears because the department has no institution to accommodate them.
MTIs have also been facing problems with regard to promotion of civil servants. Before the imposition of new law, the department would promote officials to senior grades in the same institutions but now there is no grading system and most of the civil servants cannot be promoted.
Civil servants on their part complained that MTIs were abolishing their posts approved in budget which affected their promotions. Sources said that MTIs transferred out several civil servants to health department and recruited their own employees.
They said that MTIs had already transferred bulk of nursing staff and paramedics to health department. They have been posted elsewhere in the hospitals but the main issue is the posting of clinical and basic science faculty members, who, if transferred, will find no place, and as a result, not only MTIs will suffer but a surplus pool will be created.
“However, pressure from the framers of MTIRA continues to swell on the department due to which the directives have been issued to identify the number of civil servants along with filled and vacant position,” said sources. They said that it was meant to send back civil servants to health department and fill their positions with the employees to be hired under MTIRA.
Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025
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