PESHAWAR: Dismissing a petition, the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday announced that the appointment of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission chief executive officer was in line with the law.

The announcement was made by a bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Syed Afsar Shah after hearing arguments from both sides into the petition filed by one of the candidates for the CEO`s post, Hafiz Abdul Hayee.

The petitioner had challenged the appointment of Azhar Khan on multiple grounds.

His lawyer said the HCC formed under the KP Health Care Commission Act, 2015, had a chairperson and members.

He added that under the law, the commission was empowered to appoint a CEO for the day-to-day functioning of the commission.The lawyer said the law stated that the CEO would have a minimum of 15 years of experience in health management, finance, law and regulation or other fields related to service regulation.

He said last year, the commission had sought applications and conducted interviews for the post of the CEO which his client had also applied for.

The lawyer said despite having higher qualification, his client was not appointed and instead, Azhar Khan was made the commission`s CEO.

He said apart from other qualifications, his client had also completed a national management course but he was not given additional marks for that.

The lawyer claimed that the respondent, Azhar Khan, was a Canadian national and was also a tax defaulter and was not qualified for the post. He alleged that the respondent (Azhar Khan) was also a deserter of the Pakistan Army.Shumail Ahmad Butt, lawyer for the respondent, contended that the post of the commission`s CEO was of utmost importance in the commission as the CEO had to manage the affairs of the commission apart from several other functions.

He said the petitioner had filed the petition on basis of rumours and had distorted facts.

The lawyer said Azhar Khan was not a Canadian national and had a domicile of Peshawar and that he was also not a tax defaulter.

He added that the CEO had not deserted the Pakistan Army and instead, he had retired from there.

Mr Butt said his client had also served as the chief administrator at a major private health facility of the provincial capital for around 15 years.

Referring to several judgments of the superior courts, he said the marks given to a candidate in interview couldn`t be challenged in the courts.