PESHAWAR: Several civil servant doctors working at medical teaching institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are drawing dual salaries against service rules, claim sources in the health department.
Under the Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, the MTIs receive a one-line budget from the government to spend according to their needs.
They’re managed by a board of governors unlike other government hospitals, which are overseen by the health department, which is authorised to abolish and re-designate posts.
Sources told Dawn that as civil servants, the salaries of “dual-positioned” doctors were disbursed to the health department through the accountant general office, while they got the other salary from the respective MTIs.
IDF says it doesn’t favour any doctors
They said that many of those doctors were posted to Khyber and Mohmand tribal districts as medical officers and they, at the same time, held MTI positions as casualty medical officers, trainee registrars or specialist registrars but they’re traced easily as the sources of their salaries were different.
The sources said that in some cases, fake resignations were submitted to MTIs by those civil servants to ensure they continued with both jobs.
They said besides medical officers, some consultants, who were basically civil servants, served in MTIs without quitting their jobs at the health department.
The sources said civil servants demanded MTIs their original posts and budgets to the health department but the former had retained posts and were appointing managers and directors to those positions releasing funds from its resources.
When contacted, health secretary Shahidullah Khan denied the claims.
“These allegations are wrong. They’re not getting two salaries,” he said.
When contacted, Insaf Doctors Forum Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Dr Nabi Jan Afridi said the forum didn’t favour any doctors and wanted a policy strictly based on merit.
“Anyone whether from the IDF or any other organisation, the policy is loud and clear. The MTI civil servants should be posted to the health department along with the budget,” he said.
Dr Afridi said in the periphery, they should be given little relaxation for rare specialties.
Sources said all MTIs had the powers to abolish any post and create another as per their requirement and therefore, they were fully taking advantage of the law, much to the embarrassment of civil servants, who argued that reduction in their numbers also affected their promotions and seniority.
They said that MTIs had been avoiding audits for several years.
Recently, the chief secretary ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission (HCC) to conduct an audit of 10 MTIs in the province to know the exact situation regarding utilisation of their budgets, according to sources.
They, however, said the HCC had put on hold its plan as the MTI Policy Board had issued advertisements to hire the services of a third party for the audit.
Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2025
