- Govt promised 46 new hospitals, failed to build even a single one
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ambitious health programme for construction of 46 hospitals across the country before the end of his tenure has seemed a far cry as no land has been specified for construction of even a single hospital so far, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
While announcing the plan in September 2016, the premier directed that the hospitals be completed before the end of his tenure; however, ground situation speaks otherwise, as despite lapse of over eight months no work has been done.
Sources privy to the development told Pakistan Today that the government has established the Health Infrastructure Development and Management Company (HIDMC) for the purpose; however, instead of initial work nothing has been done on the mega plan so far.
The sources said that the government had taken the decision to set up 46 hospitals across the country owing to the rising criticism by political opponents for giving priority to metro buses and motorways over health and education.
Besides, the PM was advised by his friends while he was in London for his open-heart surgery to construct state-of-the-art hospitals in Pakistan, they added.
A driving force behind the programme was Additional Secretary Dr Ijaz Munir at the Prime Minister Secretariat. When Ijaz Munir was transferred and posted as the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chief secretary, the work had halted and the government had even failed to appoint a chief executive officer (CEO) of the HIDMC.
At the position of joint secretary which could only be filled by a seasoned bureaucrat, who had the relevant expertise, but instead a technocrat was appointed.
However, the officials said that since the government was more interested in hiring contractors rather than professionals and technical people, resultantly the whole programme had reduced to the paper.
There is hardly any chance of any allocation for the programme in the forthcoming budget because the government has to focus on constituency politics since it’s an election year and would allocate more funds to their elected representatives.
According to the plan, out of 46 hospitals, three were to be constructed in Islamabad, 12 in Punjab, six in Sindh, seven in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), eight in Balochistan, five in AJK, four in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and one in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which will have capacity of 500, 250 and 100 beds.
The sources said that a little amount of fund was allocated at the initial stage and recruitments were made at some senior posts, but later no fund was released for the much-hyped plan.
Zero allocation in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the financial year 2016-17 indicates that the government would not succeed in setting up a single hospital by 2018.
The federal government, on the directives of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, had written letters to the chief secretaries of the four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory Administration, AJK and GB administrations to allocate land for proposed hospitals.
However, sources said that under the plan three hospitals were to be set up in Islamabad, but a plan for a single hospital hasn’t been finalised yet.
The HIDMC website carries no contact number, but it has just given an email ID and there are no updates about officials concerned at the site.
Pakistan Today sent an email based on queries regarding the programme on the given emails of the company, but no reply was received.
