LAHORE, Nov 7: The management of University of Health Sciences on Thursday demolished one of the walls of the building in a bid to occupy Shaikh Zayed Hospital’s (SZH) parking space in front of its emergency and outpatient departments.

The action has been taken despite SZH Board of Governors’ unanimous decision not to hand over the hospital land to the university. The SZH management has informed the Cabinet Division about the university’s action in writing and waiting for an advice.

Meanwhile, on Friday morning, the UHS management felled trees to block the parking lot.

Hospital officials termed the UHS action illegal. They told Dawn that the action had been taken without prior permission from any authority.

It is learnt that the UHS had earlier asked the SZH management to hand over the land to it as President Gen Musharraf had issued a directive on Nov 15 last to give five acres of land to the university. The UHS had taken a plea that there was no clear demarcation of the land, so the SZH should hand over parking stand space to it.

Consequently, the issue was taken up by the SZH BoGs in its meeting presided over by federal Health Minister Naseer Khan on Sept 20. After physically inspecting the site, the BoG had decided not to hand it over to the UHS and suggested that both should share the space.

When contacted, SZH chairman Prof Anwaar Ahmad Khan said the hospital had informed the UHS about the decision.

Prof Khan said he had talked to UHS BoG chairman Prof Mahmood Chaudhry who stated that the president had allocated this land to the university and it was its right to occupy it.

When contacted, Prof Chaudhry said the president and the SZH Board of Trustees had allowed the UHS to occupy five acres of land.

In a recent meeting with Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali at the Governor’s House, he said the PM had also allowed the UHS to implement president’s order. He had given UHS VC Prof Dr Malik Husain Mubashir a go ahead signal and asked the SZH chairman to refrain from interfering.

In the meantime, Prof Chaudhry said he had informed the PM about the implementation of the president’s directive.

When contacted, Cabinet Division secretary Nasiruddin Ahmad said he was not aware of the background of the whole issue. He said he had not yet received any report from the SZH about the issue.