LAHORE, Feb 15: Former Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) senator Ishaq Dar says his party supported the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the passage of the 20th Amendment in the National Assembly to ensure an independent election commission and elections under an impartial caretaker government.

He said handing over the administrative control of Shaikh Zayed Hospital to Punjab was also part of the deal.

He said this at the inauguration of faculty lodges and a multipurpose examination hall complex at the University of Health
Sciences (UHS) on Wednesday.

Mr Dar said with the transfer of SZH, Lahore, to the Punjab, the tug of war going on for the last one and a half year between federal and provincial governments had ended.

“We had informed the PPP-led government that as soon as the SZH is transferred to Punjab, the provincial assembly would pass a resolution in 48 hours in favour of the Drug Regulatory Authority to be established at the centre for coordinated control over drugs’ manufacturing and import issues,” he said. He said the PML-N fulfilled both promises.

He said he hoped the SZH would provide better health facilities to the public under the Punjab government.

He said the government would allocate funds for the establishment of a new UHS campus in Kala Shah Kaku this year.

UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Malik Husain Mubashar said the UHS had entered into strategic partnerships with the University of Liverpool, the University of Glasgow, the University College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Eastern Finland.

He said that 10 students would be sent to the University of Liverpool every year for a PhD in clinical sciences.

He said an Institute of Research Excellence would be established at Kala Shah Kaku campus with University of Liverpool, UK, to develop a cohort of young researchers who would carry on translational research in cancers, obesity, genetics, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, biomedical engineering, neuro-sciences and infectious diseases.

The UHS would also start a diploma in humanitarian assistance this year in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK, Prof Mubbashar added.