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SAHIWAL, May 14: The under-construction outpatients department of the DHQ Hospital has reportedly been ordered to be demolished by the provincial health minister.
The project was started in December last and funded by local philanthropists.
The hospital was opened in 1960. The present building could not cater to the needs of the local population. Attention of the health department was drawn towards construction of new building, but all in vain. On failing to get the government attention, well-to-do people of the area came forward and the project was launched after approval from the buildings department. The district Nazim also announced a grant of Rs500,000 from the district government funds. Health services director-general Dr Yaqoob Jafar laid the foundation stone.
On April 23, provincial Health Minister Dr Mahmood Ahmad visited the DHQ Hospital. He ordered that the hospital mosque should be shifted and the OPD plan be checked by the government architect. The work was stopped on the minister’s order.
Now, hospital sources claimed, the minister had ordered to demolish the building.
They said the people who were against the man behind the project, former medical superintendent Dr Jahanzeb Khan, have succeeded in influencing the minister to stop the work.
HUNGER STRIKE: A defaulter of the Punjab Rural Support Programme (PRSP) has been on hunger strike till death since his arrest on May 11.
Mehr Alam Sher Lak of Chak 98/9-L got a loan from the PRSP. He could not pay two instalments and was arrested from the house of his in-laws in Malka Hanse by the PRSP officials.
He is too weak to walk.
He told this scribe that his mother was sick. He had gone to his in-laws to borrow money from them to pay the loan instalment.
Mehr Alam is a defaulter of Rs45,000.
tortured to death: A young man was tortured by police to death in custody on Tuesday.
Ayub Sial, an alleged pickpocket, was nabbed by people in the DHQ Hospital a couple of days ago and handed over to Kot Khadim Ali Shah police. His body was found near the tomb of Baba Mast. There were torture marks on the body. The body was removed to hospital.
The family and relatives of the dead man staged a demonstration and demanded the arrest of policemen responsible for his death.
