Appointment of health secretary

LAHORE: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court (LHC) sought reply from the provincial chief secretary within ten days on a petition challenging appointment of Fawad Hassan Fawad as Punjab health secretary.A citizen, Usman Ishtiaq, had originally filed the petition. The petitioner’s counsel, Muhammad Safdar Shaheen, submitted that Fawad was an officer of grade 19 but was working on the post of secretary in BPS-20.He said that Fawad is currently attending a mandatory promotion course at the National Institute of Public Administration, thus, he could not be appointed as the health secretary at the moment.Shaheen submitted that Fawad was also working on other side projects and was currently earning four allowances/salaries.He stated that Fawad had proved incompetent for the post of health secretary since he failed to resolve the issue of doctors’ strike, which resulted in the deaths of several patients. He requested that directions be issued for Fawad’s removal from the post of health secretary. – Dailytimes