ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The federal cabinet has approved the privatization of a 50-bed kidney centre established by the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) in the capital.

The centre was completed in six years at a cost of Rs130 million.

The WWF secretary, Najamuddin Najmi, told Dawn on Monday that the fund was privatizing all its kidney centres in five cities of the country, including Islamabad. These kidney centres were set up at a cost of Rs850 million. He said the biggest among them was established in Lahore at a cost of Rs480 million. This centre has already been purchased by Sheikh Zayed Hospital at the same amount. He said the privatized hospital had a capacity of 200 beds.

The Privatization Commission has been directed by the cabinet to start bidding for the two centres in Islamabad and Karachi.

“Two parties have submitted their bids for the centre which are being considered by the authorities concerned,” Mr Najmi said.

Responding to a question, he said two 50-bed kidney centres were under construction in Peshawar and Quetta. Some 80 per cent work has been completed on both the projects.

The WWF secretary said the federal cabinet had given its consent for the handing over of these two centres in Peshawar and Quetta to the relevant health departments.

He said the WWF had no intention to earn money through privatization of the centres and only wanted to recover the cost of construction. “If any party gives more money, it will go to the national exchequer,” he added.

He said due to limited resources the fund could not run these centres, therefore it obtained the cabinet’s approval for their privatization.

The WWF built spacious buildings for the kidney centres. However, necessary equipment for the centres is yet to be installed.

A source told Dawn all five kidney centres were established in the Nawaz Sharif government under the prime minister development package.

The project of WWF kidney centres was commissioned some six years ago.

He said all parties, who intend to take part in the bidding of these centres, had been asked to run these centres only for the purpose of kidney treatment.