LAHORE: In a step aimed at saving the public at large from the exploitation by a well-connected and resourceful mafia, the Lahore Parking Company (LPC) has taken over the administrative control of the parking lots of two government-run hospitals of the city – the Jinnah Hospital and the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) – on the orders of caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

The step has been taken to save the patients, their attendants and other visitors to these teaching hospitals using motorcycles, cars, vans etc from ‘parking mafia’ that had been blatantly exploiting them by overcharging without any fear or check for the last one decade or so.

Sources say that the ‘parking mafia’ operating at the mega teaching hospitals of the city has become very strong because of backing by powerful investors, who shelter its illegal activities, particularly overcharging.

They say the “investors” also include some high officials in Punjab health department, civil secretariat and the chief minister’s office, who act as ‘sleeping partners’ of the contractors running parking lots in major teaching hospitals of Lahore and patronise and protect them.

CM takes notice of exploitation by contractor mafia

They say many parking lots are being run for years on ‘stay’ granted by the civil courts, rendering huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

A contractor of one of the two government hospitals taken over by LPC had been running the parking lot on ‘court stay’ since 2016 or so, a source says.

He says a plethora of complaints of overcharging and misbehaviour with the visitors have been going unnoticed since long because of the well-placed beneficiaries of these illegalities.

He says the contractors at the Mayo Hospital, Services and Lahore General Hospital, are still charging Rs60 to Rs100 for a car, in violation of official Rs30 parking fee.

The overcharging results in frequent exchange of harsh words and scuffles between the parking contractors’ staff and the visitors to these hospitals.

An official source says that in many case the medical superintendents (MSs) of the government hospitals are also beneficiaries of the crooked system as parking contractors pay ‘monthly’(bribe) to them ranging from Rs100,000 to Rs300,000, depending on the capacity of the parking lot and scale of illegalities being committed by the vendors.

The source says that hospitals’ managements also connive with the contractors to facilitate them in getting stay orders from the civil courts and running the parking lots without paying the government the amount decided under the tender agreement.

Referring to a case of a teaching hospital, he says, the outstanding amount to be paid by a parking contractor totaled up to Rs80 million because of the stay order, as the institute’s top administration barred its legal team from properly pursuing the matter in the court in return for doubling the bribe amount.

The source says the parking system has become a lucrative money-minting business at the public hospitals of Lahore because of the nexus comprising contractors, politically influential people and corrupt officials, everyone earning hundreds of millions of rupees.

“We have held many meetings and written letters asking the health authorities to handover the control of the parking lots of the state-run hospitals of the city to the Lahore Parking Company, but to no avail,” the LPC Managing Director (MD) Rehan Waheed Khan told Dawn.

He says the company’s efforts remained fruitless because of a lack of interest on part of the hospitals’ administrations, as well as the higher health authorities despite the matter being of public interest.

“We held a series of meetings with the previous health secretary, discussed with him the endless vows and sufferings being faced by the patients and others due to the overcharging and other complaints the company has been receiving and he agreed to involve the LPC,” Mr Khan said, regretting the officer got transferred before he could take action in this regard.

Recently the chief minster visited the Jinnah Hospital and took notice of the parking complaints, ordering the LTC to start its services at the facility.

Following the chief minister’s orders, Model Town assistant commissioner (AC), with the help of police, gave charge of the Jinnah Hospital parking lot to the LTC.

Similarly, he said, the LTC also took over the parking services at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), where serious complaints of overcharging and misbehaviour by the contractor’s staff had been surfacing since long.

Citing an example, the LTC head said that an attendant complained to the AC concerned that the parking contractor at the PIC had been charging him Rs600 per day for his car.

“In addition to this, the LTC has also been receiving complaints daily about overcharging on the Prime Minister’s Portal”, Rehan Waheed says.

He says that the LTC has requested to the government through the health department to let the company take over the parking lots of the state-run hospitals in the city against half of the contractual amount it had tendered to the private parties.

“We are willing to handover the parking spaces of all the government hospitals of Lahore to the LTC and a proposal was under process in this respect”, Punjab Health Minister Prof Javed Akram told this reporter.

He lamented that the core objective of the government hospitals was to provide healthcare services and protection to the patients. “Unfortunately, our institutes began to run businesses in the name of outsourcing parking lots, canteens and other services, ignoring the fact that it has never been their subject”, Prof Akram says.

He confirms that the administrative control of parking lots of the two state-run hospitals has been handed over to the LTC.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2023