Health dept flouts tribunal's orders on management postings.

Byline: Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR -- The health department has failed to remove the doctors of general cadre from management positions in the province despite the services tribunal's orders.

On Aug 9, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Services Tribunal delivered a verdict ordering the removal of all doctors, who don't belong to management cadre whether medical officers or senior medical officers, from the management seats.

Though the tribunal ordered the appointment of only doctors from the management cadre to such positions, the health department continues to violate those orders by tasking the general cadre doctors with holding the management cadre positions.

Officials say general cadre medics continue to hold management cadre positions

Sources said four general cadre doctors were posted to the department's management positions on Oct 14, while a doctor from general cadre was made the district health officer of Hangu early this month.

They said 18 BPS-18 and BPS-19 doctors from the management cadre were made officers on special duty lately, so they sat idle despite having vast experience and thus, adversely affecting the working of the department.

The officials said the OSDs also didn't get salary until they weren't properly posted.

They said a senior management cadre doctor got cash-strapped recently as his salary was withheld on him becoming an OSD, so his colleagues arranged money for him.

The officials said the concept of OSD was wrongly used as it t was basically meant to give a special task to an officer that others couldn't do.

They said the departments couldn't make OSDs with the exception of the establishment department, which required the post creation for that period so that he or she could take salary.

The officials said OSDs in the health department not only stayed without salary until their proper postings but they also weren't given health professional allowance for the period when they weren't posted to sanctioned positions.

They said most OSDs had no place to sit and wandered from one office to another...