ISLAMABAD (APP): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday served notices to respondents in a case filed by paramedical staff and doctors of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) against implementation of Medical Teaching Institute Ordinance (MTI).
The court also served notice to Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan for judicial assistance and asked him to satisfy the court on behalf of the federal government.
Federal government, Ministry of Health, Establi-shment Division, Chairman Medical Teaching Institute (MTI) were among those who were served notices in the case.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani conducted hearing on the case filed by doctors and paramedical staff of PIMS.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioner Mudassar Khalid Abbasi appeared before the court and took the position that PIMS Hospital was built in 1969 and then the hospital was given the status of a university through an Act.
He said that the government had issued Ordinance to privatize PIMS, adding that the step was taken to change the structure of the hospital. The ordinance would affect the rights of PIMS staff, he said.
The court inquired that whether the status of the civil servants of PIMS under the Act wouldn’t be changed. The petitioner’s counsel said that the government brought the Fede-ral Medical Teaching Instit-ute Ordinance after the Act.
The court inquired whether the Act was repealed by the Ordinance. On which the lawyer 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 court asked the petitioner to clarify that whet-her they admit Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University Act and disagreed with the ordinance.
The bench 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 couldn’t go anywhere else. The court served notices to respondents and adjourned hearing of the case till January 28 with the above instructions.
