KARACHI: Chest disease hospital requires repair: CM
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 15: The Sindh Assembly was informed during question hour on Monday that condition of the building housing Lyari Degree Science College and Chest Disease Hospital is not good.
The information was part of the written reply by chief minister Ali Mohammad Mahar to a question by the PPP’s Mohammad Rafiq advocate. Mr Rafiq had asked whether it was a fact that the hospital was functioning in the vicinity of the college and whether the government intended to shift it to Lyari General Hospital and utilize the said building for B.Ed and M.Ed classes.
The CM informed the House that the hospital had been functioning in the vicinity of the Lyari Degree Science College since 1952. There were many doctors and other staff working in the hospital from the beginning.
There is a turnout of four to five patients daily. Medicines for tuberculosis are not available and x-ray unit, as well as laboratory, is also not functional. The hospital at present is not useful for community, the House was informed.
The CM said that there was one doctor at present available at the hospital who visited it twice or thrice a week whereas one senior dispenser was also available.
The hospital is running under the management of Karachi TB Association and not under the administrative control of the EDO (health), Karachi, he clarified.
The House was informed that the hospital was functioning on the first floor of Intermediate College, Government Commercial Training Institute, located within the Lyari Degree Science College. There are eight rooms in the hospital and the condition its building is not good. It requires repair.
In reply to another question by the same member, the House was informed that the Lyari General Hospital did not receive any aid from Baitul Maal.
Minister for Planning and Development Shoaib Bokhari who was responding to questions on behalf of the chief minister, said that efforts would be made to obtain grant from Baitul Maal within the next 10 days.
He said that the ban on recruitment in health sector was expected to be lifted this year.
Responding to a question by Humera Alvani, the House was informed that at present there was no shortage of ASV and ARY vaccines but during summers and rains, the number of snake-bite cases used to increase and the NIH could not meet the demand as per the requirement due to limited output.
The House was informed that the posts of ENT specialist (BS-18) and gynaecologist (BS-18) were lying vacant at Taluka Hospital, Tando Adam, due to the shortage of the specialists.
Ms Alvani also wanted to know that to what extent gastro-enteritis, had spread in the rain-affected areas of Sindh and that what precautionary measures had been taken in this regard. She had also asked for the number of patients affected by the recent rains. But no reply to these questions was available.
The minister, replying to another question, said that in future doctors would be appointed on contract basis and the contract of one who would decline to serve in the interior would be cancelled.
QAIM’S MOTION: Earlier Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah asked PPP’s Syed Qaim Ali Shah, to assist the House on admissibility of his privilege motion against provincial minister for Zakat and Ushr, Dr Irfan Gul Magsi.
Qaim Ali Shah was asked by Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah to satisfy him on Article 66 of the Constitution to the extent that whatever is said on the floor of the House enjoys immunity under this article and whether a member can move a privilege motion against another member.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah had moved the privilege motion against Dr Magsi for his remarks against politicians of Khairpur that they had politicized the zakat disbursement and as a result an amount of Rs40 million lapsed and could not be distributed among poor and deserving people in Khairpur district.
He said that he would not press his motion if the minister came out with ‘sorry’ for his remarks.
He quoted sub-rules 4 and 5 of the Article and contended that he had the right to move a privilege motion unless hit by Article 66.
His arguments were continuing when the stipulated time for the privilege motion finished and further arguments were put off till Tuesday.
