AKUH told to respond to plea seeking free medical facilities for poor citizens

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday gave two weeks further time to Aga Khan University Hospital, Sindh revenue department and others to file comments on a petition seeking directives for the AKUH to provide free of charge medical facilities to poor and needy citizens.

The directives came on the petition of Dur Mohammad Shah who submitted that although land was allotted to AKUH for charitable purposes, but in practice the hospital administration was charging patients higher fees than those charged by other charitable hospitals.

According to the petitioner, the university hospital was allotted land by the deputy commissioner of District East in the 1980s for the construction of a charitable hospital and medical college, with the condition that no portion of the land “shall be used for commercial purpose”.

He said that under Section 10 (4) of the Colonisation of Government Lands Act, the payment of land revenue annual assessment charges had to be made and recovered from the AKUH and it required a revised assessment on the expiration of the term after 10 years when the settlement of land was executed.

He further said that no annual assessment of payment of land revenue on the expiry of 10 years had ever been made or recovered from the university hospital by the government. Moreover, several blocks were being constructed by the hospital without getting approval from the relevant government agencies.

The petitioner said the AKUH had said on its official website that patient welfare and Zakat programmes gave financial assistance to patients who were unable to pay the fees, but practically they were charging patients higher fees than those charged by other charitable hospitals.

According to the petitioner, the AKUH was built and operated for charitable purposes in order to serve the poor people, but unfortunately it was providing medical facility at a heavy cost. He said poor patients could not afford the specialised health care that they desperately needed.

He submitted that the university hospital was providing medical facilities to higher-income group and

corporate employees and it was extremely difficult for a common person to get medical treatment at such a high cost. The court was requested to direct the AKUH to provide medical facility to every poor and needy citizen free of charge as per the agreement for the grant of land to the hospital and produce the entire record of free medical care it had provided to the citizens.

He also sought action over the alleged misuse of the land and the hospital’s failure to use the land for charitable hospital purposes.

The division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar of the Sindh High Court took notice over non-filing of comments by the AKUH and gave it two more weeks to do so, observing that a notice be issued to the administrator AKUH to appear in person to explain the non-compliance. The high court also directed the deputy commissioner east and the revenue department to file comments by January 31.