PESHAWAR: Four recently sacked members of the policy board of Medical Teaching Institutions (MTIs) on Wednesday moved Peshawar High Court, challenging their removal by the provincial government.

A petition was jointly filed by the ousted members named Mohammad Tahir, Dr Zeeshan bin Ishtiaque, Maj Gen Salahuddin Qasim and Prof Ghazala Mahmud, requesting the court to declare as illegal and set aside the notification issued by the health depart-ment on March 28 through which it was notified that the chairman and members of the policy board ceased to hold offices with immediate effect.

They also requested the court to declare as illegal the decision of the caretaker provincial cabinet in its meeting on March 16 to remove the petitioners as members of the MTIs policy board.

The respondents in the petition are: KP government through its chief secretary, KP health secretary, KP administration department through its secretary and the Election Commission of Pakistan through its secretary.

The petition is filed through Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani.

The petitioners have cited multiple grounds for challenging the decision of the government, stating that the caretaker government had oversteppedits mandate given under the Constitution of Pakistan and Elections Act, 2017.

They have also sought declaration of the court that the role of the caretaker setup is confined to running day-to-day affairs of the state with the help of available machinery/ resources/manpower, and cannot take policy decisions and permanent measures including recruitments, making appointments, transfers and postings and removals.

The petitioners also requested the court to direct the implementation of different judgments of Supreme Court regarding the powers and functions of a caretaker government.

They stated that they were members of the policy board of MTIs and were appointed under section 4-A of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa MTI Act, 2015.They said that on January 26, 2022, the government approved the recommendations of search and nomination council and appointed the members of MTIs policy board for a period of three years.

They contended that under the leadership of MTIs policy board, tremendous growth and development were made in various hospitals, functioning under the umbrella of the board.

They stated that the results were worthwhile as new buildings, facilities were added and capacity of hospitals was improved. They said that amidst all the achievements, it was natural that the policy board would be allowed to complete its tenure. However, to their utmost surprise a summary was moved by the health secretary to remove the members of the board,they added.

They contended that the said summary was moved in negation of the Elections Act, 2017, and the mandate of the Constitution. They added that the summary was placed before the provincial caretaker cabinet, which gave approval to it on March 16.

The petitioners claimed that the minutes of the meeting clearly reflected that chief secretary and health secretary both recorded their dissent by making it in unequivocal terms that the caretaker government lacked the authority to dissolve the board as per section 230 of Elections Act.

The petitioners contended that under the mandate of Constitution, no caretaker cabinet could make policy decision even in relation to appointment and posting of civil servants.