Punjab is taking least interest in health sector: Nisar
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has expressed his anger at the Punjab government saying it is very slowly performing as all the issues related to health have come to a standstill.
“Till now, the Punjab government could not constitute a healthcare board,” he said as the Supreme Court directed the Punjab government to inalise THE law For taking over THE Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) within a fortnight.
It also ordered the Surgeon General of Pakistan to take the charge of the PKLI.
A three-member bench headed by the chief justice and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Faisal Arab, resumed the hearing
into the case.
‘NO TRANSPLANTATION’
Justice Nisar remarked that Rs22 billion were spent on this PKLI while one liver has not been transplanted yet.
“In Rs34 Billion, ive Hospitals can be made. It’s a clear case for anticorruption or NAB,” he said at the last hearing, the court asked about what to do with the trust.
He said that firstly, they needed to decide if there was any need for a trust. On a query by him, Dr Saeed Akhtar replied that he had been managing this project for the last three years and had taken not a single penny from the KPLI. He also said that 21 kidneys had been transplanted in the hospital and also cured some cancer cases.
The chief justice noted that this
PKLI was created for the liver transplantation. “Kidneys replantation was already being done in many hospitals,” he observed. Dr Akhtar replied that for that purpose operation theatre was not ready yet.
Justice Nisar said that he knew Dr Akhtar was very close to Punjab former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif and if he wanted, he could tell how he came close to him. He asked the doctor to explain why a trust is necessary for PKLI.
The chief justice said that Sharif made this trust for a very special reason and asked if this trust put its own capital in this institution. He regretted that even a liver transplant of child, who has a donor, cannot be done.
“Billions of rupees were gone in salaries only.”