PESHAWAR: The head of anaesthesia department at Bannu Medical College has accused the administration of harassing him on flimsy grounds, requesting chief minister to grant him leave prior to his retirement.

The administration of the medical college has accused him of creating hindrance in smooth delivery of services and inciting staff to go on strikes.

An application sent to chief minister by Dr Sibghatullah Dawar, who is also ICU consultant at Khalifa Gul Nawaz (KGN) Hospital, Bannu, and head of anaesthesia department at Bannu Medical College (BMC), stated that he worked in BPS-19 since March 12, 2018, to September 26, 2024.

Additionally, he had also served as ICU consultant in Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar, and was instrumental in the establishment of ICU in KGN, the only recognised unit in southern districts.

He said that he contracted coronavi-rus at its peak time from patients and got unconscious and was put on mechanical ventilator support in a private hospital in Peshawar.

Later after recovery, he rejoined duty as anaesthetist and ICU consultant at BMC.

However, he said that he was suddenly removed from service on flimsy grounds that he had exerted pressure on BMC administration through security agencies. He said that he reinstated subsequently.

`Again, the administration in one way or the other was preparing grounds to terminate me again from my service,` said Dr Sibghatullah in the application.

To avoid unwanted circumstances, he requested the chief minister to grant him leave prior to retirement and if it was not possible then direct authorities concerned to accept his resignation as a protest.

In June 2023, the dean of BMC issued a letter to him, accusing him of consistent misconduct and levelling allegations against the management and Board of Governors (BoG) without any proof or evidence.

`You (Dr Sibghatullah) have already been issued a show-cause notice on February 28, 2023, by the medical director for your misconduct and in replies to the same you have admitted your mistake and assured the manage-ment to abide by all rules and regulations in future,` said the letter, titled removal from service.

The dean said in the letter that Dr Sibghatullah received another chance through a personal hearing on March 13, 2023 but he had nothing to say in his defence.

`It is unfortunate that you have continued to carry out the same activities wherein you have accused the management and BoG of irregularities in recruitment and other activities, on social media as well as in person,` said the letter.

It said that the matter was discussed with the hospital and medical directors in a meeting wherein his previous misconducts were noted with concern and he tried to provoke staff to observe strike, involved government agencies to pressurise management, refused to carry out duty assigned by management, misbehaved in front of MTI Policy Board members as well as deputy speaker of National Assembly during the first-ever convocation of BMC and continued his baseless allegations against management.

Sources, however, said that Dr Sibghatullah was an anaesthesia specialist and his services were needed because the specialty was scarce.

He also played role in strengthening ICUs in Peshawar-based hospital, they said.