SWABI, Feb 1: The Shahmansoor Hospital Complex (SMC) and district headquarters hospital, the two main hospitals of Swabi, are without medical superintendents (MS) for the last six-months, insiders told Dawn on Tuesday.

They said that earlier Dr Riaz Malik had been taking care of both the hospitals as MS for sometime, but after his transfer six months ago no MS was posted to these hospitals.

“The situation is disturbing and no one is ready to regularly attend to his duty in the absence of the MS. I don't know how the patients are coping with the situation in these hospitals,” said a senior paramedic on the condition of anonymity.

He said that on the one hand there was lack of facilities in these hospitals, on the other the staff did not take any interest in their duty. Insiders said that the health delivery system in these government hospitals had been deteriorating and this situation was fully exploited by three private hospitals situated in front of the DHQ hospital.

The sources said that doctors of the DHQ hospital had been directing patients to their clinics or private hospitals.

Talking to this correspondent before leaving the hospital, Dr Riaz had said that as MS of the hospital he had no powers to ensure duty by the hospital employees, who would often use political connections to reverse official orders.

Conference at GIK Institute: Dr Anjum Tauqir, director-general of Dr A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) said here on Tuesday that the KRL had played an outstanding role in the country's defence.

He was speaking at the final session of a three-day All Pakistan Conference on Materials Technology (Mattech) at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. The conference attracted students from different universities of the country.

Organised by American Society of Materials (ASM), GIK Institute chapter, the conference provided an opportunity to students to produce their research papers about the material science. The members from Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) also attended the conference.

Emphasising research work, Dr Anjum told the students that they were lucky to have modern research laboratories in their universities.

He said that the role of material science was critical to human development and defence.

Prof Fazal Ahmad Khalid said that interaction among the students and universities was vital and the GIK Institute had been striving to boost linkages with both national and international universities.