CM asked to apologise over delay in surgical tower

LAHORE : Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) senior leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi has said that he had started the Mayo Hospital surgical tower in 2006 and during his tenure it had been completed in all respects but as Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif came in 2008, he did not allow it to be functional.

In a statement, Pervaiz Elahi said that Shahbaz Sharif was not ready to make the surgical tower functional even now but thanks to Pakistan Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who took sou motu notice of miserable conditions of hospitals in Punjab and also remarked that why mega health projects like the surgical tower of Pervaiz Elahi government were not being allowed to be functional although they were complete.

He said that under Shahbaz’s negative mentality he kept stopping funds for the project on one or the other excuse and if for show-off some funds were allocated, they were misappropriated and transferred to the "jangla" bus and metro train. "He played for ten years with the lives of patients. Thousands of lives could have been saved had the surgical tower become functional timely. Shahbaz Sharif should tender apology to the nation for keeping the surgical tower closed for ten years," he added. He said that he was grateful to the chief justice that he had paid attention towards prevailing conditions of hospitals in Punjab.