MANSEHRA: Applicants, who had repeatedly applied for various technical posts in the health department in Lower Kohistan, on Saturday demanded that the government advertise the vacant positions after the Director General Health Services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa terminated around 50 employees.
“It is a positive development that the long-awaited inquiry into the illegal appointments of around 50 medical technicians and other employees has been completed, resulting in the vacation of posts in the health department. These vacant positions should be filled immediately,” Saifur Rehman, a resident of Pattan in Lower Kohistan, told reporters.
Mr Rehman, who led a group of applicants, said that around 50 employees had been appointed without fulfilling codal formalities in 2022.
“A clerk in the office of the district health officer of Lower Kohistan, in connivance with some officials in Peshawar, allegedly issued appointment letters to those employees in 2024 after receiving financial gratification of Rs1 million each, while fraudulently showing their appointment dates as in 2022,” he claimed.
Rehman said that a committee constituted by the health department in 2024, with Dr Aurangzeb as chairman and Dr Attaullah as a member, had submitted its findings regarding the irregularities, which were released recently.
The DG Health not only terminated the services of the allegedly illegally appointed employees but also directed the district accounts officer of Lower Kohistan to recover salaries already paid to them.
“We have been waiting for the outcome of this inquiry and action against those involved for the last two years. Now that
action has finally been initiated, and the posts have fallen vacant, local applicants should be appointed to these seats,” Rehman said.
He urged the government to advertise the vacant posts without further delay so that local applicants could secure employment opportunities and people in the district could receive improved healthcare services.
