When we talk about encroachment, two immediate questions creep up in our mind. Firstly, where the poor encroachers would go, if they are removed from the illegally occupied spots, and secondly, why and how the authorities concerned provided them the place to establish unlawful stalls. Like other shopping malls and major markets in the federal capital where the encroachers has set up a number of makeshift stalls, the mushroom growth of encroachments outside the Poly Clinic located in Sector G-6 is a real health hazard for the visiting patients as well as creating unhygienic environment, and life threat to others living adjacent to the congested hospital building.
Establishment of 24 illegal stalls outside the Poly Clinic had forced the hospital administration in 2010 to close the Emergency Department’s main gates for security reasons, resulting in difficulties to the OPD patients in particular.
During a visit by this scribe on Monday, a number of patients said they were facing problems due to closure of main gates of the Emergency Department, as they had to travel a fair distance to enter the premises using alternative entrance on a congested road. Tariq Mehmood, a patient, said the new entrance of Emergency Department was located in a residential area, thus causing troubles to residents, while there was no gate and proper security measures at the entrance. “The administration has taken a strange decision to close down the main gates of hospital,” he said, adding that hospital’s four entrances were open without any security check.
Malik Samiullah, another patient, said the stalls adjacent to the hospital were a constant security threat and many people, including Afghans, were visiting these vendors. “Keeping in view the security situation, the hospital administration decided to shut the two entry points of the Emergency Department that caused troubles to the patients,” he added. Another patient from Rawalpindi, Saeed Ahmed, with a plaster cast fractured leg, while talking to this scribe, said he was visiting the hospital for follow-up of his treatment. “Few years back, I entered the hospital without much trouble but now I have to make a lot of effort and suffer pain while visiting the Orthopaedic Department using other gate,” he said.
Visitors said establishment of illegal stalls in front of the closed main gates of the building spoke volumes for the inefficiency shown by the Capital Development Authority (CDA), as a number of illegal stalls exposed the hospital and people to security threats. “The CDA has allotted over one-kanal land of greenbelt to different people, including parliamentarians, who rented out the area to vendors for setting up fruit and vegetable stalls, barber shops, roadside restaurants (commonly known as chapper hotels) and tuck shops,” a source in the hospital told Pakistan Today. A stallholder Nazir Ahmed claimed that his stall was one of the three legally allotted stalls by the CDA. He said the closure of main gates two years ago, was still causing immense trouble to the patients.
“The other entrance to emergency is situated on a small and congested road and it is time consuming for a vehicle to reach the department,” he said, adding parking lots were also not sufficient as it could be observed on a daily basis that serious patients had to spend a lot of time to park their vehicles, while sometimes the congested road leading to the emergency gate was blocked with a number of cabs and other vehicles. The hospital administration is of the view that encroachers have reopened illegal structures in front of Poly Clinic. “The CDA had earlier removed some of the encroachments in the park outside the gate of the hospital. Now all the encroachers have returned and restarted their businesses,” an official said.
Presently, 24 illegal cabins have been established in the greenbelt, while restaurants, fruit sellers, and barber shops are set up at a distance of 20 yards. Moreover, illegal stall owners are selling unhygienic products, including, juices, mineral water, tea and bread and looting outdoor patients and visitors by selling commodities at higher prices as compared to market rates. No rate list has been displayed by any stallholder in sheer defiance of the rules. The spokesman for Poly Clinic Dr Sharif Astori, while talking to Pakistan Today, said the stalls were a constant security risk for the hospital. “We have talked to the CDA administration many a time and conveyed our reservations the stalls and taxi parking, but so far it has taken no action,” said Astori. He said all these stalls had been set up illegally, adding that the Emergency Department gates were closed due to rush, as the area had become a car parking. “Nowhere in the world, emergency departments exist inside the hospital premises, but this concept exists in Pakistan only. I request policymakers to review it,” Dr Astori said.
“All major roads are linked to these gates and residential area is attached to it and surely we are vulnerable,” he said, adding the CDA raided the stalls many a time on their request, but the stalls were there again very next day. CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid said they lacked human resources to look into the matter of illegal constructions of stalls. “The vendors have set up their stalls illegally near the hospital in connivance with the owners of legal stallholders,” he maintained. He said only three stall were legal and they were unable to ensure proper monitoring due to the shortage of human resources. Sajid denied that the hospital administration had contacted them about establishment of illegal stalls and said they would look into the matter and take strict action against the stalls set up illegally.
