ISLAMABAD: The chief justice of Pakistan said on Monday that he would not tolerate any carelessness on the part of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that could waste Rs10 billion in funding offered by Bahrain for Pakistan’s first nursing university.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had summoned NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal to his chambers on Jan 4, after expressing disappointment with impediments to obtaining possession of land on which the university is to be built.

Justice Nisar had remarked that the bureau had started defaming and humiliating people on the basis of single or frivolous complaints and questioned its criteria for entertaining complaints.

NAB, CDA told to address land issue so construction can begin

The chief justice was told that the CDA could not take possession of land for the project while an inquiry is pending with NAB.

On Monday, the court directed NAB and the CDA to address the land issue and ensure construction of the university begins soon.

King Hamad of Bahrain had announced funding for King Hamad University of Nursing and Associated Medical Sciences in 2014, and it had been decided that Pakistan would arrange land and utility services for the university while Bahrain would fund its construction.

It was to be built on 237 kanals of land on Park Road in Chak Shahzad to cater to 2,000 students with 500 annual admissions.

It will also include on-campus residential facilities for 1,000 women.

A Bahraini delegation visited Islamabad in July 2016, and its foundation stole was laid by then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in January 2017, but the unavailability of land delayed the project both times.

Some 700 people have filed applications with the CDA claiming to be owners of land that is to be taken over for the university.

With the project continuously delayed, then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in September 2017 directed the Minister of Capital Administration and Development Division to address the land issue. However, possession of the land was not provided to the Ministry of National Health Services even then.

Possession of the land has not been obtained to date, because of which the NHS ministry is considering asking the Bahraini government to build the university at the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the land in Chak Shahzad can later be handed over to the NIH.

An NHS ministry official seeking anonymity said the project will be built on a turn-key basis.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2019