HYDERABAD, Dec 24: Sindh Auqaf, Ushr and Zakat and Religious and Minority Affairs Minister Dr Irfan Gul Magsi has said action will be taken against import and inspection depot officials, responsible for the delay in dispatch of medicines to the Civil Hospital of Hyderabad.

He was talking to journalists at the hospital here on Wednesday after handing over a cheque of Rs250,000 to medical superintendent Dr Shafqat Memon from the Zakat fund.

Dr Magsi agreed with a questioner that the I. I. depot should have called tenders for the purchase of medicines and provided the same to the CHH on time.

The hospital receives 75 per cent of its medicines’ quota from the I. I. depot and 25 per cent is given to the hospital in two instalments of Rs5 million each for local purchases of medicines.

The minister said even those medicines were purchased by the I. I. depot which had only three to four months left in their expiry and the same were sent to the hospital.

He said he had handed over the cheque to the hospital after increasing the Zakat grant for the hospital from Rs500,000 to Rs1 million to help it meet its requirements of health facilities.

He further said he would try to increase the grant up to Rs2 million and added that he would also take up the matter with the Federal Zakat Council.

He said he had pleaded the CHH case at all forums and he would keep resisting attempts to hand over the control of the hospital to any other department.

The minister observed that the hospital must work under the Sindh government’s control as it had been catering to the needs of poor people from all over the province. He said the hospital had a huge turnout of patients.

He said the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan had been told that if it wanted to set up its centre at the CHH, it would have to offer free training to postgraduate students of the hospital.

When his attention was drawn towards the fact that the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences was bound to give 40 per cent of its earnings of self-financing scheme to the CHH, he said the LUMHS should abide by its commitment.

He said Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar had approved one 250kv generator, a body carrier and other equipment for the CHH.