KHAR: A resident of Batai Alizai here on Saturday alleged that his 14-months old son died at the agency headquarters hospital, Khar, due to negligence of doctors and paramedical staff.

Abdullah told mediapersons that his son, Bilal Khan, had been lying on the hospital bed for the last three days following his surgery without any treatment. He claimed that even the surgeon who had operated on him didn’t check him regularly.

He said that after condition of his son deteriorated he found that there was no doctor or paramedic at the hospital to provide medical assistance to him. Mr Abdullah appealed to the senior officials of health department to investigate the matter and give exemplary punishment to the doctors for negligence.

Meanwhile, deputy medical superintendent of the hospital, Dr Naseeb Gul, told mediapersons that an inquiry committee, headed by senior surgical specialist Dr Ziaur Rahman, had been formed to probe the issue and fix the responsibility.

ALLOWANCES: The pro-administration tribal elders in Bajaur Agency have expressed concern over suspension of their monthly allowances for the past two months and demanded of the political administration to release the same at the earliest.

Talking to this scribe, a group of pro-administration elders from different areas of the agency said that they did not get their monthly allowances for August and September. “We don’t know about the reasons for suspension of our monthly allowances,” said Malik Abdul Salam of Salarzai tehsil.

When contacted, the administration officials said that the allowances of tribal elders had been stopped on the directives of political agent. Answering a question, an official claimed that allowances for August and September had been canalled while those of October were likely to be paid to the elders.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2017