Centre to hand over Karachi, Lahore hospitals to provincial govts

KARACHI: Faced with an acute shortage of financial resources and lack of fiscal space, the federal government has decided “in principle” to handover administrative and financial control of the three Karachi and one Lahore hospitals to the respective provincial governments, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Control said on Saturday.

Federal Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Control had assumed the administrative control of three major Karachi hospitals including National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the National Institute of Child Health Karachi and Shaikh Zayed Medical Institute of Lahore in May this year on the directives from Supreme Court of Pakistan but no monetary allocation was made in the financial budget for the four hospitals.

Talking to The News on Saturday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said federal cabinet in its last meeting discussed the issue of provincial hospitals in detail and decided to handover them to the respective provincial governments.

“The federal cabinet and the Prime Minister Imran Khan were of the view that in the prevailing political situation, it would not be advisable to run these hospitals, especially Sindh’s three hospitals by the federal authorities,” Dr Zafar Mirza said.

He maintained the federal law minister and the Attorney General of Pakistan would soon approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan and ask the apex court to review its earlier decision. Ruling out any deal with Pakistan People’s Party, the federal health advisor maintained the decision was taken to prevent the people of Sindh from problems and difficulties.

To a query, he conceded the federal government is facing financial issues and it is difficult for them to run these huge health facilities in the prevailing economic situation but added the financial issues were not the only consideration while reviewing the decision.

On the other hand, Sindh Advisor Information Barrister Murtaza Wahab welcomed the federal cabinet’s decision and said they already knew the federal government lacked capacity to run such huge and specialized health facilities. Advising federal government to refrain from interference in the provincial governments’ affairs, he said the central government should concentrate on improving its performance and fulfilling its promises with the people.