MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Saturday nullified the appointment of the principal of the public-sector AJK Medical College (AJKMC) Muzaffarabad, and directed the government to complete the process of selection of a new principal in accordance with the law, preferably in a couple of months.

The judgement was issued by Justice Azhar Saleem Babar on a petition filed by Prof Dr Adnan Mehraj, head of the departments of surgery of the college and Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan (SKZN) Hospital, Muzaffarabad, some three months ago.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had approved the establishment of AJK Medical College on the recommendation of the federal government, on Dec 30, 2011 in pursuance of Section 11 of the PMDC Ordinance 1962, as adapted in AJK.

As a result of the adaptation, the medical and dentalinstitutions regulations, 2012 (recognition,eligibility,criteriafor enhancement in annual admission and accreditation standards) and regulations for the appointment of faculty, professional staff/examiners/principals/ deans/administrative staff in undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental institutions of Pakistan 2011 hadalso become applicable in AJK.

On Jan 17 this year, the government had notified the appointment of Prof Dr Jamshed Ali as AJKMC principal on the recommendation of an `executive committee` constituted by the AJK government in October 2011 and mandated to exercise powers on its behalf with regard to the af fairs of the two public sector medical colleges in Muzaf f arabad and Mirpur.

However, Dr Mehraj had contended in his petition that the constitution of the `executive committee` was beyond the scope of the PMDC law and the rules and regulations framed thereunder.

Since the `executive committee` or anyone else could not prescribe the qualifications other than the qualifications mentioned in the PMDC criteria, the contents of the advertisement for the post were also beyond the scope of the PMDC criteria, he maintained.

According to him, only four out of eight members of the committee were on the panel of interviewers on Nov 7, 2016, when it had recommended Dr Ali as principal, without preparing any merit list.

He had averred that Dr Ali was a 62-year-old retired government servant and thus ineligible to be appointed under the regulations for appointment as principal. Apart from that, his PhD degree (Level-HI qualification) was also still not registered by the PMDC, a compulsory requirement for appointment to this of fice.