May 29, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

KASUR, May 28: Like other state run hospitals in the district, a Pakistan Railway dispensary in Kasur stands for nothing but jolts for the poor patients. Hundreds of families depending on this dispensary have criticised the railway administration for not listening to the cries of helpless patients.

The dispensary, established before the birth of Pakistan for railway employees living in a colony consisting of about 250 quarters, is giving a bleak look. Dr Muhammad Aamir, who is the in-charge of the dispensary and is enjoying all perks and privileges from the railway for the last three years, seldom visits the dispensary, leaving the job to a retired dispenser or an illiterate ward boy. Nevertheless, a Christian ‘faith healer’, who is a sweeper at the dispensary, treats dejected patients, especially issueless women.

In the absence of Dr Aamir, ward boy Shaukat Ali, who had never been to school, treats hundreds of patients with only four kinds of tablets available at the dispensary. Ali told Dawn that he treats patients keeping in view the symptoms of their diseases. He gives his patients one or two tablets and “a majority of them recovers in a day or two”. He refers critical patients to a Lahore hospital. He says he has the ‘honour’ of examining patients even in the presence of Dr Aamir, and claims proudly that he has never made a mistake.

Retired dispenser Chaudhry Rehmatullah visits the dispensary on a regular basis. Besides helping the ward boy in certain ‘complicated’ cases, he signs the attendance register of Dr Aamir in his absence, issues sick leave certificates to railway officials for Rs50 each, as he has dozens of certificates already signed by Dr Aamir.

A few years ago, a railway constable suffering from gastro died at the dispensary after Rehmatullah injected him an expired drip. However, the constable’s family withdrew the case against Rehmatullah on the intervention of some railway officials. Rehmatullah allegedly heads a mafia at the dispensary and almost everything at the dispensary is at his will.

A railway official living in the same colony told Dawn that the Pakistan Railway supplies ample medicines to the dispensary, but the mafia headed by Rehmatullah sells these to pharmacies in Kasur and Lahore.

Lady health visitor Farah Almas, who attends railway employees at the dispensary, also entertains outdoor patients for Rs50 each. As the railway dispensary does not have the medicines and gynaecology equipment, Ms Almas refers patients of the colony to her private clinic at Noor Masjid Chowk. She also ‘refers’ patients to ‘faith healer’ Raza Masih.

It is learnt that Masih is famous for healing faith through ‘black magic’. A railway official said on the condition of anonymity that a number of cases of sexual assailment were reported to the police against Masih in the past, but he always managed to get out of them. The dispensary closes at noon, but Masih continues his ‘work’ at the dispensary till night and also on Sundays.

In his version, Rehmatullah says he just comes to the dispensary “to help patients” because Dr Aamir comes to the dispensary occasionally. He denies his involvement in the sale of official medicines and says the dispensary has never been provided medicines according to its needs. He says he is not issuing bogus medical certificates to people or signing Dr Aamir’s attendance register.

He says the constable died of cardiac arrest, not injection of an expired drip. He says the ward boy ‘rarely examines’ patients. Ms Almas said she was not a railway employee and was working at the dispensary for the welfare of patients, on the request of a non-government organisation.

Masih said he was only doing the duties assigned to him at the dispensary.

Dr Aamir was not available for comment despite several visits to the dispensary.

Inspector of Works Humayoun Akhtar said it was not his jurisdiction to check the dispensary, however, he and his family had never been to it because of its bad repute.