Money transferred to US hospital for cadet’s treatment: Sindh govt

KARACHI: The Sindh finance department has transferred $0.273 million to the account of a children’s hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio (USA) for the treatment of tortured cadet Muhammad Ahmed Hussain Mashori, a spokesperson for the chief minister said on Tuesday. He said that the cadet would be sent to the US for his treatment as soon as the doctors there tell the government to do so.

“On the instructions of the chief minister, the finance department has transferred money to the account of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio for Ahmed Hussain’s treatment,” Rasheed Channa told reporters in response to the media reports that the provincial government was not doing enough to send the paralysed cadet to the US.

The father of the paralysed teenager, Muhammad Rashid Mashori, had told some TV news channels in Karachi that the provincial government had “forsaken” his son and despite the chief minister’s announcement that he would be sent abroad, funds were not being provided to the hospital in the US.

Channa said the chief minister had approved Rs50 million for the treatment and after the federal government’s approval, the money had been transferred to the hospital’s account through the State Bank of Pakistan.

Ahmed, a student at the Cadet College Larkana, was paralysed last year because of the torture inflicted on him allegedly by his instructors at his alma mater and a special medical board formed by the provincial government, after examining the boy at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, had recommended sending him to an ENT-otolaryngologist in Cincinnati, US, where his treatment was possible.

The 10-member board, headed by neurosurgeon and head of Civil Hospital Karachi Neurology Department, Prof Junaid Ashraf, after examining Muhammad Ahmed Hussain, 13, had observed that the boy’s thyroid cartilage in the neck was broken and his injuries indicated that he was subjected to torture.

The board had also recommended that that the boy should be sent to Dr Robin T Cotton, who is known for his work in paediatric otolaryngology and is the director of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The US Consulate in Karachi had already issued visas to both Ahmed and his father for six months but the cadet’s father recently claimed that despite the announcements, the provincial government was not providing funds to the hospital in the US for the treatment of his son.

Channa said the provincial authorities were also in touch with airlines for the provision of a better seat for the teenager so that he could be comfortably taken to the destination. “The Sindh government could not have transferred funds to the hospital without permission from the federal government and so the provincial health, finance and general administration departments jointly worked to resolve the issue,” he added.