Treatment centre for addicts to start work from June

LAHORE

The largest state-of-the-art Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in public sector for the addicts has been established on the premises of Punjab Institute of Mental Health (PIMH).

The construction of the centre has been completed at a cost of Rs 192.142 million. The centre consists 100 beds and 10 cells. It would start functioning by June, 2017.

It was stated by Provincial Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Kh Salman Rafique while chairing a meeting after inspecting the newly-constructed building of the hospital at PIMH on Friday, according to a handout issued here.  PIMH  Chief Executive Dr Nasir Bhatti said that the Finance Department had given approval for the 113 posts for the newly-established centre while 40 posts would be sanctioned soon after making the criteria for the posts.

Kh Salman Rafique directed the health special secretary to approach the committee constituted for yardstick criteria in KEMU and the matter should be resolved immediately. Dr Nasir Bhatti informed that procurement process for medical equipment had already been completed and Rs 38.00 million had been released. He said that the delivery of the most of the equipment had been received while the remaining would be completed by May 31. The superintending engineer and XEN of C&W said the process had been started for the purchase of 200 KVA generator, 400 KVA transformer and electric panel for the addicts centre.

Kh Salman Rafique said that the newly-constructed state-of-the-art centre in PIMH for addicts was the largest specialised institution in public sector for the treatment of drug addicts where free of cost treatment facilities would be provided to the patients.

Earlier, Kh Salman Rafique took a round of the beautiful newly-constructed building of the centre and directed further steps should immediately be completed to operationalise the centre by the end of June, 2017.

Career counselling centre: A Career Counselling Centre, an initiative of Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), was inaugurated at Government College Township on Friday. 

PHEC Chairperson Prof Dr Muhammad Nizamuddin was the chief guest on the occasion while students, faculty members and senior PHEC officers participated in the ceremony.

Dr Nizam said most of the prospective and graduating students of higher education institutions of the province were unaware of the career prospects and emerging market trends. “As a result, there are fewer opportunities for them in the market, or they are unable to meet the requirements of the employers; in both cases, the country suffers,” he said and added that career counselling centres was a PHEC project aimed to provide a platform to the students of higher education institutions of the province to facilitate them in developing their career paths based on their academic skills and interests.  Dr Nizam said four such centers had initially been established at selected colleges of Punjab at a cost of Rs.2 million for each college.