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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Allocation of paltry funds: PIC may not see light of the day in near future

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
November 20, 2018

PESHAWAR: There is disappointing news for heart patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as the much-delayed Peshawar Institute of Cardiology (PIC) is not likely to see the light of day in the near future after the government allocated paltry funds in the recent budget for the purchase of equipment for the hospital.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2017 had made a commitment during a function at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) that he would ensure the PIC to be operational in six months.

At that time his party was in the opposition at the Centre and today he is better

placed to materialise his commitment. He can provide funds to enable the KP

government to procure equipment and hire staff for the cardiac hospital which has

been under construction for 12 years.

The project directors for the PIC up to 2015 were Prof Dr Mohammad Hafizullah and Prof Dr Riaz Anwar. They failed to complete the project for some unknown reasons.The previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government removed both of them and brought it under the Board of Governors (BoG) of LRH, which Dr Nausherwan Burki headed.

Dr Burki is Imran Khan’s cousin and the architect of PTI’s much-trumpeted health reforms.The project was already delayed but court litigations caused more delays when a habitual litigator, allegedly at the behest of influential doctors, went to the court and pleaded that it should be run by its own BoG as it was a separate hospital.

The high court ordered the formation of a separate BoG for PIC without realizing that the project was not even completed and as such did not qualify as a ‘Medical Teaching Institute’.The government failed to plead with the court that this project had not been declared as an ‘MTI’ and therefore did not need a separate BoG.

After a year, in 2017, the PTI government formed a BoG for PIC. It included Dr

Nausherwan Burki and Prof Waheed Ahmed Sahibzada, the founder of cardiology in KP.All of a sudden Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo moto notice on an application sent to the Human Rights Cell and dissolved all boards of the medical teaching institutions (MTIs), including BoG of the PIC.

The application on which suo moto hearings were conducted was in relation to the Ayub Teaching Hospital and was later expanded to include Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex. It had nothing to do with the PIC but the decision caused a setback to the project.

Dr Burki and his team had started the recruitment process, shortlisted some of the faculty members and were planning to place orders for procurement of equipment.The caretaker government appointed interim boards for the MTIs in accordance with the CJ’s decision.

Dr Hafizullah, the former project director made a comeback and was made the chairman of BoG of the interim board for the PIC. It was expected that this time he would utilise his skills and expedite work on PIC. His tenure was too short though and ended with no tangible success.

The second PTI government formed a new board for PIC after the 2018 general election.It was expected that the board will be formed with the view to complete the project but its composition has been a disappointment thus far.

Dr Abdul Bari Khan, a Karachi-based cardiac surgeon, has been appointed as the chairman of the new board. He runs the Indus Hospital in Karachi and has been working to establish a second campus of the hospital in Peshawar.

Dr Abdul Bari was a member of the first BoG of LRH and had come close to Dr Burki.Under Dr Abdul Bari, so far only one meeting of the BoG of PIC has taken place. Another is scheduled later this month.

This correspondent sent him some questions about the project almost two weeks ago but he had yet to reply.It looks unlikely that the BoG will be able to make the lone cardiac hospital in KP functional anytime soon. Someone sitting in Karachi cannot manage it through remote control.

If the government is sincere in completing this project, it should hire a person who can look after its affairs on full-time basis.There is no hope if the present board continues with once a month meeting instead of working on an urgent basis to make PIC operational.

Even though Dr Hafizullah shares some blame for the delays in the completion of the project, he would have been a better choice than the current chairman BoG.A senior consultant, who wished to remain anonymous, said the best thing would be that the government de-notify MTI status for PIC and appoint a full-time project director.The project director should be someone with excellent credentials and no vested interest, he said, adding that Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology was completed in three years only.