April 28, 2002	Sunday	Safar 14, 1423

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CHITRAL, April 27: About 13 basic health units (BHUs) out of 21 set up in the hilly Chitral district are without doctors showing district and provincial governments’ neglect towards the public health sector.

Apart from these 13 doctors’ seats, five posts of specialists in the Chitral district hospitals are also lying vacant with the authorities concerned least interested to do the needful to fill them up, sources said.

According to the data gathered from the offices of Executive District Officer (Health), there are 21 BHUs, three rural health centres (RHCs), three tehsil headquarter hospitals, 22 civil dispensaries apart from the DHQ hospital in the district.

Similarly, the only one post of drug inspector is also vacant for the last four years. The X-ray and other basic laboratory test facilities are non-existent in all the RHCs. The BHUs are being run in the far-flung areas, which are, in most cases, more than 80km away from the DHQ hospital.

All the civil dispensaries are, however, run by paramedical staff, providing life-saving drugs to the people of remote areas.

Meanwhile, talking to Dawn, Dr Fazle Qayum, EDO Health, expressed his determination to fill all the vacant posts of medical officers in the BHUs.

He said the DHQ hospital was being upgraded to category B from D so that maximum health coverage could be provided here to save people from going to distant places for treatment.

He said all the posts of district specialists had been filled except that of a cardiologist while four post of tehsil specialists are lying vacant in the THQ hospital Drosh.

The Drosh hospital is being upgraded to D category while the BHUs of Warijun and Shagram will be upgraded to RHC during the current year. About the immunization programme, he said the people were quite satisfied with it, as he had never received any complaint against it.

JOURNAL LAUNCHED: The launching ceremony of the student journal, Pamir of Government College of Commerce, was held here on Saturday at the college auditorium.

Former chairman of Geology Department of Peshawar University, Prof Israruddin was the chief guest.

Project Manager IUCN Dr Inayatullah Faizi termed the bringing out of the journal a commendable effort and hoped it would help sharpen students’ hidden potential.

College principal, Prof Abdul Hameed Khan also spoke on the occasion.