PESHAWAR: Work on the Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Hospital in the provincial capital hasn’t begun even 14 years after its approval by the federal government, the relevant officials have said.

According to the officials, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had announced construction of a general hospital in Peshawar in 1990. There followed the purchase of land by the provincial government. However, process came to a halt after the Benazir Bhutto government’s dismissal.

During the second tenure of Benazir as the prime minister (1993-96), the federal government secured 110 kanals of land near the Motorway Exchange, but litigation by landowners hampered the project.

In the meantime, the government was sent packing halting work on the hospital.

In 2008 when PPP and ANP formed a ruling coalition, the government decided to resume work on the project.

Also, the then provincial government pursued cases about it in courts besides securing possession of the plot to begin work on the hospital.

Some people, who had built illegal houses on the land, were evicted on the court orders.

The officials said in May 2012, the government signed an agreement with a private consultancy firm to carry out the detailed planning, prepare architectural design and make bidding documents for the hospital.

According to them, it was also agreed in July 2012 to upgrade the hospital from 500-bedded facility to the 1,000-bedded one besides adding specialised facilities to it.

Similarly, it was changed from a general hospital to a teaching hospital with a view to attach it to a medical college in future.

The officials said million of rupees were spent on the hospital’s architectural design as well as its PC-I, which was approved by the federal government in 2013.

They said the federal government had pledged Rs13 billion for the hospital under a presidential package after its approval by Ecnec but the project was likely to face further delay after the end of the PPP government at the centre and in the province.

The officials felt the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government at the centre was unlikely to provide more funds for the hospital named after Benazir Bhutto for political reasons.

They said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government, too, seemed not interested in pursuing the project as it didn’t offer any political advantage to it.

The officials, however, said the federal government was bound by the law to provide funds for any project approved by Ecnec.

They said the provincial government allocated Rs350 million in the annual development programme for the hospital every year but the amount of money remained unspent due to lack of federal funds.

The officials said the hospital was supposed to be built on funds to be provided by the federal and provincial governments on 60:40 per cent basis, but both had shown no interest in it.

They said the government was weighing options to build a recreation park on the plot as it didn’t have funds to establish the hospital.

“The federal government has been requested for the funds sanctioned for the project,” a senior health official told Dawn.

He, however, said the federal government had denied funds insisting in the post-devolution regime, health was a provincial subject.