QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, during a visit to a charity hospital here on Sunday, appealed to international donor agencies to help the provincial government provide medical facilities to poor people.

He announced Rs10 million grant for the Dr Kalimullah Khan Health Foundation Hospital, the first charity hospital to be set up by private sector in Balochistan and which began functioning on Sunday.

The chief minister praised Dr Kalimullah Khan, the president of the hospital, for building it through his personal resources. Spread over 50,000 square feet, the hospital comprises 15 wards and 66 rooms.

Dr Khan deplored that most of the areas in Balochistan were so backward that they did not have a hospital.

“Even a doctor is not found in some areas.”

“On the one hand, government hospitals are in a bad condition and, on the other, poor people cannot afford to pay bills of private hospitals.

Therefore, I decided to construct a charity hospital to provide free of cost treatment to poor people,” he said.

Well-known cardiologist and senior vice president of the hospital, Professor Dr Haq Dad Tareen, said thousands of patients, including those from Afghanistan and Iran, visited the two government-run hospitals in Quetta on daily basis despite their poor condition.

He regretted that Balochistan could not meet three of the eight millennium goals set by international community: reducing death rate among newborn babies, improving maternal health and controlling the spread of infectious diseases like HIV, Aids and hepatitis.

Provincial Ministers Sardar Raza Mohammad Baraich, Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai, Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal and Nawab Ayaz Khan Jogezai announced a donation of Rs200,000 each for the hospital.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2014