KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and Young Doctors’ Association (YDA) have strongly condemned the recent appointment of a bureaucrat to the position of Director General Health Services Sindh, demanding that the provincial government immediately withdraw the order and appoint a senior health professional to the post.
The Sindh government had replaced DG of health services Dr Pervez Ahmed Shaikh and appointed a bureaucrat, Shaharyar Memon, in his place.
In a statement, Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, representing the PMA, said that the appointment was a clear violation of court orders and directives regarding the governance of technical medical positions.
“It’s highly disheartening for the entire medical fraternity to see senior, experienced, and highly qualified medical professionals bypassed in favour of a non-technical administrator,” he said, regretting that the government of Sindh and the health department either remain unaware of or indifferent to the serious consequences such a decision holds for public health administration.
PMA, Young Doctors’ Association demand reversal of govt decision
He further reasoned that placing a non-medical bureaucratic officer at the helm of the senior management cadre of doctors undermined professional expertise and compromised health administration.
On behalf of the association, he demanded immediate revocation of the administrative order and the prompt appointment of a senior, qualified medical professional to the post of DG Health Sindh.
“If the Sindh government insists on running health services through non-medical bureaucrats, medical professionals across the province will have no choice but to resign and hand over clinical and operational responsibilities to the bureaucracy to manage patient care themselves.”
The association urged the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to “de-notify all medical colleges in the country as the government’s actions signal that trained medical professionals are no longer valued or required”.
Expressing similar reservations, Dr Waris Ali Jakhrani heading YDA Sindh said that it’s an illegal decision that would be resisted at every level. “We strongly condemned this appointment. All top government health-related jobs should be assigned to medical health professionals as these are technical posts,” he said, adding that bureaucrats had failed the whole country and they only made money at technical posts.
Both associations warned that if the “illegal appointment” is not reversed swiftly, the medical community would initiate a wider campaign of administrative non-cooperation across the province.
Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2026
