KARACHI, April 4: Sindh is doing without a health minister for the last six months. This is affecting badly not only the situation obtaining in the provincial health department but creating problems at the federal level too.

The federal health minister, Nasir Khan, told Dawn on Friday that he wanted to hold a meeting with all the provincial ministers, but couldn’t because Sindh didn’t have one! “Look, I wanted to discuss so many common issues with the provincial health ministers.

“That’s why I wanted to invite them all to a meeting in which we could sit around a table and discuss policy and implementation issues. But so far I have not been able to do so because Sindh doesn’t have a minister.”

In response to a question, Mr Khan said he would not be waiting any longer for a person to be appointed to the said position. “I gave a long briefing to President Musharraf yesterday. And now I have a mandate from him,” said the minister.

“That’s why I have decided to hold a meeting without Sindh’s minister. The secretary can represent the province.”

A government official who worked closely with the previous health minister of Sindh claimed recently that several cases remained pending in the health ministry because of the non-appointment of a minister.

“For instance, medicines are not being bought for the various hospitals,” he said. “There has been a lot of hue and cry over this issue but nobody is listening.”

An office-bearer of the Pakistan Medical Association — Dr Shershah Syed — expressed similar feelings. “Without any doubt this is a serious issue but nobody in the government is taking any notice.”

He was of the opinion that the appointment of a minister would be good for the people of the province. “At the moment there’s no one at the top who could monitor the performance of the health managers and doctors.”

“The authorities should appoint a health minister as soon as possible.”

A physician, however, claimed that appointment of a health minister would just create problems and no good will come out of the move. “This time a politician will take the seat as the health minister.

“And appointment of politicians to ministerial positions has always been problematic. We see a hike in corrupt practices whenever this is done.”

Meanwhile, several politicians are trying their best to get appointed as Sindh’s health minister. These persons are in almost constant touch with the chief minister.