ISLAMABAD: Ten years on, the project for the extension of Polyclinic is yet to be started. After hearing the public interest case almost a month ago, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had reserved its decision on whether the hospital building should be constructed on the land of Argentina Park.

Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) Sheikh Anser Aziz, who is also Islamabad Mayor, said the CDA administration thinks the building should not be built on park land and is awaiting the IHC decision.

Secretary Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Nargis Ghaloo said the consultant firm is conducting a feasibility study of the project and that CADD has been pushing it to complete it soon so development work can start.

Polyclinic was established as a pioneer services hospital in 1966 as the Central Government Hospital and consisted of eight beds for emergency, surgery, medicine and gynae. The hospital was established to provide free of cost, high quality healthcare services to federal government employees.

The hospital currently has 550 beds for primary, secondary and tertiary curative care services to federal government employees. The Argentina Park is located in front of the hospital. In 2008, it was decided that an extension to the hospital will be constructed on one third of the park land, which comes to about 2.5 acres.

The project became controversial when the Ministry of National Health Services realised the park was named after Argentina and that the Embassy of Argentina had provided funds for the construction of the park and its maintenance.

“A map of Argentina was also installed in the park. The Foreign Office was contacted to take the issue up with Argentina, which allowed for the building to be constructed on park land. It was decided that an ‘Argentina Ward’ will be established in the new hospital block and the Embassy of Argentina will provide funds for the treatment of patients in the ward,” a doctor at the hospital said.

The doctor said that a five-storey building was to be constructed in the first phase but the foundation, pillars and structures would be made strong enough so another six storeys can be added to it.

“A PC-II of Rs1 billion was approved for the project and as per the design, there will be two basements and a spacious parking. The old Polyclinic building was to be reconstructed in phase-II of the project,” he added.

Another doctor who works in the administration of the hospital said the new block was to have paediatric, surgery, neurosurgery, heart surgery and other facilities.

“After the earthquake of 2005 and with the deteriorating situation in different areas of the country, a large number of people migrated to Islamabad and between 7,000 and 8,000 patients visit different ancillary departments of Polyclinic every day,” he said.

Polyclinic was established for government servants but is providing health facilities to other citizens as well, he said, adding that a 60-bed Mother and Child Health Centre was also operating under Polyclinic administration in Aabpara and a 20-bed civil surgeon dispensary was operating in G-7/3. He said 30 dispensaries controlled by Polyclinic are working in the federal capital, Rawalpindi, presidency, Prime Minister Office, Supreme Court, Pak Secretariat and in two educational institutions in Islamabad.

“It is therefore necessary to construct a new building for the hospital because it is getting crowded in the old one and it is difficult to administer all these projects from there,” he said and that the capacity of the new building will be equal to that of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences which has over 1,100 beds.

“Around 30,000 patients are admitted into Polyclinic every year and over 95pc of the beds remain occupied all the time,” he said,

A CADD official said the Polyclinic management had thought the issue will be addressed after 2015 when a professional doctor, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, was appointed minister CADD, who was also from the federal capital.

“The CDA was also placed under CADD. However, though Dr Chaudhry chaired a number of meetings and due to his efforts, the amount for the cost of the land was paid to the CDA, the extension of Polyclinic was delayed again in 2016 when the lay out plan was rejected due to extravagant use of land,” he said.

It was then decided that a new lay out plan will be made and after that the Central Development Working Party will be requested to give approval for the construction of the building, he said.

“However, a petition was filed in the IHC against the project,” he added.

Talking to Dawn, Supreme Court Advocate Aslam Khaki, who filed the petition of resident Yasmeen Haider, said the petition was filed due to a number of disadvantages of the project to residents of the federal capital.

“According to the law, public parks and other public property cannot be demolished unless their utility ends.

“The park provides residents with fresh air and is used by relatives of patients in the hospital as a waiting area. A number of people also jog here. If an extension to the hospital is made here, it will lead to an increase in traffic, pollution and other problems,” he said, adding that he had requested the court of Justice Athar Minallah that instead of building an extension to this hospital, other hospitals should be constructed in the peripheral areas of the city.

“People come from Murree to Polyclinic. If a hospital is made in Bhara Kahu, people will stop coming to Polyclinic.

Hospitals should also be made in Rawat and Tarnol. If the extension is necessary, the many government quarters around Polyclinic in which bureaucrats live should be vacated and used for the extension,” he said.

CADD media coordinator Ateequr Rehman said the ministry wants to construct the extension but work will be resumed if the IHC gives a favourable answer.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2017