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Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) Medical Director Amer Yar Khan resigned citing reservations over the PKLI Act 2019 saying that the Act ‘comprehensively takes away any autonomy we had which is a pre-requisite to run any facility in a modern and efficient way.’

In June 2018, PKLI Chairman Dr Saeed Akhtar was placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) by the Supreme Court (SC) after the court found that PKLI was spending Rs100million on salaries of employees without a single kidney or liver transplant being conducted at the institute.

On March 1, 2019, the SC vindicated him and he was reinstated as the PKLI chairman, but an official notification was is yet to be issued by the government.

Amer Yar Khan believes that the purpose of changing the Act was to block his reinstatement as the PKLI president as ordered by the Supreme Court.

He said he aimed to resign earlier, but was convinced by the adhoc management to stay a little longer. Amer said the reason Pakistan could never develop like Malaysia or Indonesia was because ‘small people’ were occupying ‘big chairs’.

“PKLI Act 2019 gives charge of the institute to a bloated government bureaucracy which has no clue how to run modern hospitals,” he said, adding that a professional who aims to honestly fulfill his responsibilities will never accept such appointments.

Amer criticized ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar calling him a ‘biased CJP’ who took a suo moto making ‘false claims’. “He did not stop there, he humiliated and threatened us in the court and specifically told me by name that he would put me behind bars. The ridiculousness is incomprehensible.”

He added that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others went after PKLI ‘battering ram’ for 11 months.

Amer Yar Khan said he had hoped that the newly-appointed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would change things, but nothing of that sort happened. “They are ‘know it all’ there”.

He thanked colleagues and friends for being a source of continuous support and for taking PKLI to greater heights. “PKLI made HMIS, EMR, Infection Prevention and Control, Quality Assurance, Waste Managment, hepatitis elimination, hepatitis bill etc buzz words which are so essential to implement proper health care in Pakistan. This is no small achievement.”

The Punjab government said that the purpose of devising the Act was to remove legal hurdles in human organ transplantation.

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