HYDERABAD, Feb 22: A controversy over the establishment of a regional centre of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan on Civil Hospital Hyderabad premises has not been resolved.

The CPSP has been pressing the hospital management for handing over a piece of land of the CHH to it for construction of its regional office. CPSP official Professor Ghulam Ali Memon raised the issue with the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on health affairs, Noman Saigal, during his visit to his camp office at the CHH on Saturday evening.

The matter appeared to have been closed following directives by Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar that the CPSP regional centre should be constructed in Jamshoro and not at the CHH. The directive was communicated to the CHH administration through a letter by chief minister's coordinator Dr Irfan Gul Magsi.

The CPSP has been trying to get the 2,000-square-yard plot of the CHH that has been created following the demolition of old casualty and orthopaedic wards. It has been the viewpoint of the hospital administration and former health EDO Dr Ashraf Bhurgari, who conducted an inquiry into the matter under the directives of the chief minister, that after construction of the CPSP office, the CHH will have no land for its extension.

However, the CPSP continued to pursue the matter through the Sindh governor, who reportedly allowed it to construct its office on the CHH premises. On Saturday, CPSP representative Memon told the health adviser in presence of CHH medical superintendent Dr Shafqatullah Memon here that the governor's directives were not being complied with.

The MS told the CPSP official that the chief minister had already decided the matter which had been communicated to him in writing. He also quoted a decision taken at a meeting, presided over by the Sindh chief secretary, held in March, 2003, in which the director general, Pakistan Rangers, promised to give 50 per cent land of the Bilawal Hostel (currently in possession of Rangers) for setting up of a trauma centre of the CHH and the CPSP regional office.

The CPSP official told this correspondent by telephone that there were clear directives of the Sindh governor, issued at a meeting held on Jan 30, that bottlenecks regarding setting up of the CPSP office at the CHH should be removed.

He said such offices had been set up in Multan, Karachi, Quetta and Bahawalpur which would benefit postgraduate students. He said Mr Saigal had assured him that he would talk to the Sindh governor in this regard.