Daily Times

The Sind High Court (SHC) averted the decision of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) regarding regularisation of contractual employees having experience of three to 12 years. The case was highlighted after a Daily Times report, which was published on August 17, 2019. A two-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui was hearing the petition filed by the Dow’s contractual employees whose contracts were cancelled and they were replaced by trainees and favourites.

The bench, after initial hearing, granted the stay order in response to the petition and ordered that no coercive action would be taken against the petitioners. The court issued the notices to the DUHS and other respondents, as well as the selection board, the syndicate board, Pakistan Medical & Dental Association, Ministry of Health and the Sindh advocate general. In the order, the court required the respondents to be present in person or through an attorney in the court on September 23, 2019 at 8:15am. The petition was filed under Article 199 of the constitution, which stated that the petitioners and other candidates appeared in the written tests which were conducted in the absence of the VC; however, the marks of candidates who were shortlisted were not disclosed and blue-eye candidates were appointed and regularised. The petitioners also submitted that the process undertaken by the DUHS and the selection board was not transparent.

In a statement, the lecturers said, “They were asked by the HR Department to receive their termination letters along with the pay cheques.” Showing their grievances, they said that the services of 45 lectures and doctors were terminated all of a sudden, which forced them to move the court. Moreover, the house officers and post graduate trainees showed concern over their stipend, as Dow was paying them Rs 20,000 a month in clear violation of the Sindh government law, and added that the house officers from LUMHS and Chandka Medical Colleges working at DUHS were being paid Rs 45,000 a month. The lecturers and doctors, who were granted stay order by the court, said they were still worried about the behaviour of the Dow management. “In spite of getting court orders, we are being threatened in different ways,” they alleged.

Daily Times made repeated attempts to contact the registrar and principal for their versions, but they did not respond to the phone calls. Meanwhile, when contacted, DUHS Director HR Shahid Sharif, who happens to be the signatory of the termination letters issued to the lecturers and doctors, said that Dow’s point of view would be given by Naeem Tahir, an official spokesperson of the DUHS.

After a while, Naeem Tahir contacted Daily Times and denied the allegations, and said that further details and version of the institution would only be provided after the management received the court orders.