PESHAWAR: The closure of outsourced hospitals in several merged tribal districts due to non-payment of Rs900 million was echoed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly here on Tuesday.

The issue was raised by treasury lawmaker Asif Khan Mehsud through a calling attention notice during the session chaired by Deputy Speaker Suriya Bibi.

The member complained that patients were the ultimate sufferers in merged areas as the employees had locked hospitals due to non-payment of salaries.

He said that those hospitals were established on the basis of public-private partnership under the accelerated implementation program in the merged areas.

In PA, minister promises provision of missing facilities to health centres

The house referred the matter to the relevant house committee for discussion.

MPA Asif Khan said that health facilities in the Upper Waziristan tribal district had not been functioning properly due to a lack of facilities and equipment.

“The dearth of necessary equipment in operating theatres, X-ray machines and lab equipment are very common in the hospitals in Upper Waziristan and rest of the merged areas,” he said.

The lawmaker said due to the unavailability of electricity, the available machinery in hospitals couldn’t be utilised for the treatment of patients.

He said that patients from far-off areas came to hospitals as no such facilities were available in those areas.

Through his calling attention notice, he demanded of the government to convert these hospitals to solar energy in the larger interest of the patients.

“In the absence of electricity, pitched darkness prevails in the buildings,”he said, wondering how patients will visit such hospitals.

He said that no one has been taking the merged areas seriously.

He said that the district health officer of Upper Waziristan had also informed the provincial government and health department through a letter about the closure of tehsil headquarters hospital in Mole Khan Sarae and sufferings of patients.

“It was basically a 40-bedded hospital with provision of wards accordingly for male and female patients,” reads the letter, adding that MERF has provided services in five specialties like medical, surgical, gynae, paeds and dental.

“Among the array of other obstacles, the most prominent and persistent issue was the delay in funds disbursement. This issue significantly impeded the initiation of services at the project’s outset and regrettably, continued to plague the discontinuation of funds disbursement for three consecutive quarters, extending into the preceding period, casting a cloud of uncertainty,” it reads.

He latertoldDawn that the government had not paid Rs900 million to the Medical Emergency Resilience Foundation (MERF), which had been running the hospitals on PPP mode.

Responding to the calling attention notice, law minister Aftab Alam Afridi said that the medical facilities were set up recently in the merged areas. “The missing facilities will be gradually provided to these hospitals,”he said.

The house also passed the West Pakistan Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2025.

The session lasted 15 minutes due to a lack of quorum, with all questions on the agenda list lapsing due to the absence of their movers.

The chair adjourned the session until Friday.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025