LAHORE, Aug 16: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said the way a dictator destroyed all democratic institutions and trampled the law during the last eight years has ruined the whole system.

He expressed these views while giving away prizes to doctors, nurses and staff for their outstanding performance at Ittefaq Hospital on Saturday.

The chief minister said due to inept policies of previous government, health and education sectors had suffered a serious setback while the law and order situation was also unsatisfactory due to which the life of the common man had become miserable.

He said during his visit to a rural health centre in Rahim Yar Khan district he was shocked to see that no medical facilities were available to the patients while costly equipment had never been used. Similarly, the whole health centre was in an extremely dirty condition. He said that condition of that health centre reflected the overall situation at the other 299 such facilities in the province.

He said medical and education facilities were not available to common people while government officers and political leaders were spending huge sums on treatment abroad. He said there was a need to eliminate this disparity and dual policy.

He said government hospitals were in an extremely poor state throughout the province, the reason being lack of commitment and dereliction of duty on the part of the officers concerned.He further said the main reason for the success of various hospitals being run by trusts was professional commitment of the doctors concerned.

Appreciating the doctors, he said the whole credit for the trust’s achievements went to them, the nurses and other staff of the hospital. He also lauded the services of Javed Shafi in making the hospital a prestigious healthcare centre.

Earlier, hospital’s Chief Executive Brig Abdul Qaddus while presenting the performance report of the hospital, said the 380-bed facility was fully equipped with modern facilities and specialists were there to serve the patients.

He said steps were also being taken for the extension of the hospital. An amount of Rs26 million was being spent annually by the trust on the provision of medical facilities to the poor.

Later, the chief minister gave away medals to the doctors, and nurses and other staff for their outstanding performance.

CONVOCATION: Addressing 42nd convocation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan here on Saturday at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, the chief minister said provision of basic health facilities and improvement of healthcare system was his top most priority and a number of ‘revolutionary’ initiatives were being taken to revamp it.

He said he had witnessed during his exile in the UK and Saudi Arabia that some of the finest doctors were Pakistanis. However, he said, the level of professional commitment shown at home by the doctors was much lower.

He said meaningful autonomy and adequate financial resources and administrative powers had been given to teaching institutions. Similarly, he said, a 30 per cent increase had been made in the health budget raising it to Rs35 billion.

He said due attention was being paid to improving and streamlining doctors’ service structures including their appointment on regular basis by dispensing with the existing contractual mode of employment.

He said self-finance schemes had been abolished to ensure promotion of merit and third-party performance audit had also been introduced.

He said special task forces and committees had been constituted for evolving a system to provide health insurance to the poorest of the poor and elimination of spurious drugs.

Earlier, college president Prof Zaffarullah Chaudhary highlighted the achievements of the institution. The ceremony was attended by a large number of senior doctors and fresh graduate from the CP&SP.

The chief minister gave away gold medals to doctors who got prominent positions in the examination. He also awarded a gold medal to Rajanpur health EDO Dr Shehnaz for her services to the flood-affected people.

APP ADDS: Talking to reporters after addressing the convocation, the chief minister called for a strict accountability of President Musharraf after his impeachment.

Sharif said keeping in view the masses’ wishes, impeachment was not enough but there must be strict accountability of the president so that no one could dare violate the Constitution or oust an elected government in future.

He said the president could not use Article 58 (2)(b) of the Constitution in the prevailing circumstances, as ruling coalition had support of most of the opposition members with regard to impeachment.

As per announcement of the top leadership of the PPP and the PML-N, the president would not be given safe passage and he along with his supporters would be taken to task for looting the exchequer during the last eight years, he added.

The last government brought the country at the verge of collapse by creating constitutional, financial, power and edible crises.

The chief minister said Nawaz Sharif took a principled stand on the restoration of deposed judges and the PML-N would not compromise on the issue.

He said deposed judges would be reinstated after the impeachment, adding that they did not believe in any minus-one or minus-two formula for the reinstatement of judges.

Sharif observed the government would fully focus on resolving problems like unemployment, dearness and food and power crises after the impeachment and judges’ restoration.

All the coalition parties agreed on a point to run all affairs of the country in accordance with the Constitution, he said and added that the parliament would decide about the fate of the people who violated the Constitution.