KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that no government hospital is working without funds. “Funds for them are arranged through taxes collected from people and, therefore, it’s my responsibility to utilise every single rupee of the public money sagaciously in the interest of the public”.

Mr Shah was speaking at the Cardiovascular Symposium organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) at Federation House on Friday.

He said it was a great success of his government that leading hospitals, such as National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) were providing free-of-cost health services. “The NICVD performed 8,856 Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCIs) in 2019 and became the largest primary PCI centre in the world,” he disclosed, and pointed out that all these PCIs were performed free-of-cost. The expenditures incurred on these PCIs were met through provincial government budget and donations extended by philanthropists to the NICVD, he said.

Says Rs22bn allocated for the hospitals though they do not legally belong to Sindh government

The CM recalled that in July 2011, these three hospitals were devolved to Sindh government without giving a single penny. “The secretary finance came to me [I was finance minister] and said that funds for running these three hospitals have not been allocated in the budget. Even then, the Sindh government spared Rs9 billion,” he said, adding that his government had allocated Rs22 billion for these hospitals this year “though they did not belong to the Sindh government legally”.

Murad Ali Shah said that when the case of three hospitals’ ownership was being heard in the Supreme Court, he had called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and requested him that the hospitals should be run with the same spirit as was being demonstrated by Sindh government in case the SC verdict came in favour of federal government. “The prime minister was kind enough to assure me that the hospitals will be run by provincial government even if the verdict came against provincial government. The prime minister appeared very clear in the operation and ownership of the hospitals, but some other people of the ruling party have been playing games,” he observed.

Mr Shah noted that the people of Karachi were generous enough in extending donations to the hospitals and “by the grace of Almighty Allah, these three hospitals are serving people of the whole country free-of-cost”.

Speaking about the JPMC, the chief minister said that it had a vast OPD and emergency services ratio in the country. “It’s providing a costly cancer treatment free-of-cost at its Cyberknife unit. Besides the Sindh government, philanthropists are extending a helping hand to run the unit free-of-cost,” he said.

Discussing the Covid-19 situation in Sindh, Mr Shah said that when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Karachi on Feb 26, 2019, he had decided to close all schools. “The decision was taken to protect lives of the people from the pandemic ... the first death stemming from the virus was reported in March 2019 and we went on to take hard decisions,” he recalled.

“It’s the result of these hard decisions that the pandemic is under control these days,” he said. “Oh, yes! closure of markets and [suspension of] business activities did affect people, particularly vendors and small traders, but some relief was provided to them,” he said, adding that more might be given in the shape of tax relief.

Replying to a question, the CM said that he had got certain major and important roads in the city reconstructed but the city was so big that the works done so far appeared not enough. “Still I have to get more and more work done to develop this city,” he said.

Mr Shah said that the rainfall in Karachi on Thursday (Sept 23) had submerged roads but it was flushed out within a few hours, except in the Nagin Chowrangi area where the infrastructure of under-construction Green Line bus service had blocked disposal of rainwater.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021