The government has finalised a list of more than 200 doctors for what is said to be the “final promotion” during this tenure through the Departmental Promotion Committee of the health ministry.
However, a scheduled meeting of the DPC on Thursday was cancelled reportedly because health minister AFM Ruhal Haque had objections with the list.
The meeting was supposed to finalise the list that would have been published tomorrow following the president’s order.
Reportedly, the health minister, who is a doctor by profession and also the president of the ruling party-backed doctors’ association Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad (Swachip), was unhappy with the list because it had too many names of pro-opposition doctors.
Sources said the spree of promotion at the eleventh hour of the government’s tenure was part of a plan to reward the pro-ruling party doctors.
According to tradition and existing arrangements, assistant and associate professors must have certain years of teaching experiences and publications in international journals for becoming associate and full professors respectively.
However, there are allegations that many doctors are being considered for the latest promotions on the basis of their loyalty towards the ruling party instead of their academic achievements.
Moreover, sources said some doctors from the BNP-backed Doctors’ Association of Bangladesh (Dab) had also been included in the list to avoid lawsuits.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that a disagreement has been brewing for a few weeks between Swachip President and Health Minister Ruhal Haque and Secretary General Dr Iqbal Arsalan surrounding finalising the names for the list.
Recently, Secretary General Dr Iqbal Arsalan and some of the other Swachip top brass finalised a list of doctors for the promotions.
However, unhappy after having a look at the list, the health minister summoned a number of top officials of the health directorate, including its director general and director (administration), to his office and told them that he was not happy with the list.
The minister reportedly told them that he had had to face the music the last time as well for promoting doctors, who were known to be supporters of BNP and Jamaat, through the DPC.
He also said he had received allegations that some Swachip leaders proposed names of opposition-backed doctors after being heavily bribed.
Ruhal Haque asked the top officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to rework the list and make sure that only the deserving candidates, who had been waiting for years for rightful promotions, were included in the list.
Some DGHS officials close to the promotion process said they had now been caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between the Swachip president and secretary general and hence had been finding it really difficult to finalise the list.
They said they were having to include and exclude names at the last moment although the list was supposed to be published tomorrow.
Dr Md Shahnewaz, director (administration) of the DGHS, told the Dhaka Tribune that it was true that a list of more than 200 doctors was being considered for promotions. He, however, declined to disclose any more detail regarding the process.
The government has so far promoted a total of 1,700 doctors in three phases through the DPC of the health ministry.
The DPC was introduced because the previous process of promotions through the Public Service Commission was very lengthy.
