CHITRAL: The district headquarters hospital, Chitral, has been without an eye specialist for the last two years.

The post of eye specialist had fallen vacant on the retirement of Dr Mehboob Hussain in March 2016.

Maulana Jamshed Ahmed, the member of district council from Chitral-I, said that unavailability of eye specialist in the district headquarters hospital for a long time showed casual attitude of the provincial government towards Chitral.

In a press statement issued here on Saturday, he said that hundreds of patients had to go Peshawar for treatment of eye ailments of even ordinary nature, spending large sums of money on travel.

He said that the hospital had a full-fledged eye unit which could be made operational by posting a specialist, but the government was not filling the post despite repeated demands by the local residents.

The district councillor said that the number of eye patients had increased manifold as very few people afforded to travel to Peshawar for treatment.

He demanded of the government to fill the post of eye specialist in the hospital on emergency basis.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2018