ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities on Saturday officially handed over a 200-bed state-of-the-art hospital to the government of Afghanistan.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of National Health Services, the Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital was completed in Kabul at a cost of $24 million and has been gifted by the people of Pakistan to the people of Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan and Afghan Minister of Public Health Dr Ferozuddin Feroz jointly inaugurated the Jinnah Hospital at a ceremony held in the Afghan capital.

Afghan minister expresses gratitude for the generous gift and appreciates Pakistan’s immense assistance in the health sector

The Vice President of Afghanistan, Mohammad Sarwar Danish, graced the occasion as the chief guest.

Speaking at the ceremony attended by officials and Afghan citizens, Mr Khan expressed the hope that Jinnah Hospital would make a substantial contribution to the health sector of Afghanistan.

The minister also conveyed the message of Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying that Pakistan would continue to take all possible measures for the welfare of the people of Afghanistan and that the Pakistani premier wished to see a stable, secure, peaceful, prosperous and sovereign Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Afghan minister Dr Feroz expressed his gratitude for the generous gift and appreciated “Pakistan’s immense assistance in the health sector,” which also includes the Nishtar Kidney Centre in Jalalabad and the under-construction 100-bed Naeb Aminullah Khan Hospital in Logar.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zahid Nasrullah Khan, said that the Jinnah Hospital was a “flagship project” of the country’s $1 billion development assistance to Afghanistan, which according to the press release, was in “in pursuance of Pakistan’s policy objective of deepening and broadening people-to-people connections between the two countries”.

It is worth mentioning that each day a large number of people from Afghanistan come to Pakistan to get medical treatment.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2019