KOHAT: People of Hangu and the adjoining tribal areas have demanded of the government to open the completed district hospital as in the absence of health facilities they have to take their patients to Kohat and Peshawar. The hospital project was declared complete in early 2017 without providing it electricity.

Talking to this scribe, the elders and MNA Khayal Zaman said that recovery of electricity supply line’s amount from a runaway contractor of the communication and works department was delaying its opening.

They said that the hospital had been completed at a cost of Rs740 million while people of the region were crying for health facilities for decades.

Malik Inayat Orakzai said that they had to first bring their patients on carts from mountains by travelling for miles and then take them to Kohat or Peshawar. The Hangu district was closest to them, but unfortunately it lacked proper health facilities.

An official of the hospital, Haji Luqman, told Dawn on phone that the government had approved the hospital in 2001. He said that completion time of the project was set at 2009, but it was extended to 2013 and then 2015.

MNA Khayal Zaman said that the hospital had been constructed in upper Hangu area on Thall road because there was no such facility between Kurram Agency and Hangu and in the adjoining Orakzai Agency. He blamed the health and C&W department for the delay.

MOU SIGNED: The Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saarland University of Germany for financial support and educational tours in the field of biological sciences.

A spokesman for the university, Zeeshan Bangash, said that the MoU was signed between the faculty of B-pharmacy and department t of pharmaceutical technology, Germany, under which the latter would provide books, arrange workshops and exchange research projects.

The MoU was signed by KUST vice-chancellor Prof Jameel Ahmed, president of Saarland University Man Fredeschmant, dead faculty of biological sciences Dr Shafiqur Rehman and Dr Ged, dean of natural sciences.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2017