RAWALPINDI: Punjab government has once again not allocated a penny for the under-construction Rawalpindi Mother and Child Hospital, Asghar Mall, and Leh Expressway Project in the 2016-17 budget.

Work on the hospital located at Asghar Mall Road near Eidgah was inaugurated on April 8, 2005 by the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz after the project was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec). But the work on the project came to a halt soon after new governments sworn in at centre and in Punjab in March 2008 and since then the project could not attract the attention of the government.

The 400-bed hospital, equipped with modern facilities, would have been made functional in 2008 with an estimated cost Rs2.’5 billion to be shared equally by the federal and the Punjab governments. The hospital was aimed at catering to the women and children.

A nursing school and a chest diseases centre were also part of the project.

The project is very important as there are only 200 beds in the gynaecology and obstetrics wards of the three government run hospitals which are not sufficient, which can be gauged from the fact that in gynae wards of the allied hospitals two or three patients share a single bed. Had the hospital been made operational it would have provided better health facility to the thickly populated area of the city.

The project was launched on the recommendation of the then federal minister for railways, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a political rival to Sharifs. Since his name was attached to the project neither the federal nor the Punjab government was interested in its completion.

Same is the case with Nullah Leh Expressway project, though the Punjab government has spent more than a billion of rupees on fresh feasibility of the project last year.

Former president Pervez Musharraf inaugurated the project in 2007, allocating Rs20 billion for it. Sheikh Rashid Leh Expressway would have begun at Moti Mehal Cinema on Murree Road and ended at 9th Avenue.

However, after the formation of PML-N led government in Punjab in 2008 general elections, the project was shelved.

Under the project, the cemented walls and bed of Leh Nullah was to be constructed, besides two roads on the banks of the nullah from Ammar Chowk to 9th Avenue.

The Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Adiala Village was also part of the project where sewage of Leh Nullah was to be transported to use it for irrigation after treatment.

Another major component of the project was to lay sewerage lines in 70pc areas of the garrison city. At present 30pc areas have proper sewerage system. It would have saved the garrison city from flood like situation in every monsoon.

AML President Sheikh Rashid Ahmed while talking to Dawn said the residents of Rawalpindi especially of my constituency NA-55 were being meted out step-motherly treatment by the PML-N government. “Work on all these projects, initiated during my tenure as minister, was halted by the PML-N government just to revenge their defeat,” he said.

“The people are waiting for better health facility in the garrison city. I wanted to give better civic facilities to the residents,” he said.

PTI local leader Zahid Kazmi told Dawn that instead of saving the city from the monsoon floods, the provincial government was wasting the taxpayer’s money on metro bus project.

“Sheikh Rashid’s two projects were good for the citizens but fall prey to political revenge,” he said.

PML-N City President Sardar Naseem said the cost of the project increased from Rs20 billion to Rs40 billion. “Acquisition of more than 200 acres land is a difficult task for the government as people have built residential units on the banks of Leh Nullah,” he said.

He said the government was striving hard to provide better facilities to the people and save low lying colonies and mohallahs permanently from flood like situation in monsoon season.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2016