November 14, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 8, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Ministry for Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education has agreed to finance a burn unit to be set up at Pims, reliable sources told Dawn.

The sources said the ministry had earmarked Rs40 million for this project, and added that the burn unit would serve as a role model for establishing other units in the provincial capitals. For this purpose, the women development ministry had fixed an additional amount of Rs100 million.

The sources said the health ministry had agreed to the decision of the women development ministry and PC-1 of the project had already been prepared whereby a burn unit, comprising 10 to 15 beds, would be segregated from the existing surgical unit of Pims.

A final meeting between the officials of the two ministries, expected to be held in the last week of this month, would lay down guidelines for establishing the burn unit. However, the sources said the Pims officials had agreed to the idea, but a few modalities were yet to be finalized in this regard. They said to keep a burn unit working, it needed regular provision of resources as majority of the burn victims hailed from the lower strata of the society and could not afford the expenses.

Pims, facing scarcity of funds, was concerned about the recurring expenditures of the project, and wanted to know as to which ministry — health or women development — would later on support the unit. This was the main issue which would be sorted out in the meeting.

The sources said setting up such a facility at the medical complex was the health ministry’s domain, but, considering the ever-increasing number of burn cases, specially of young women in this region, the women development ministry had decided to finance the project.

To a question, the sources said the women development ministry since long was asking the health ministry to set up burn units in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, but due to budgetary constraints, the proposal could not materialize.

Referring to a study conducted by a local NGO, the sources said 68 per cent of the burn victims in the region were young women, hence the ministry had taken the initiative to facilitate such women.

It is worth mentioning here that at present there are two burn units in this part of the region; one in Kharian Cantt and the other in Wah cantt.