CHITRAL: The activists of Jamaat-i-Islami’s youth wing took out a protest procession against the proposed privatisation of government hospitals in the district, saying many of them are already being run under public-private partnership.

Led by JI district chief Maulana Jamshed Ahmed and youth wing president Wajeehuddin, the procession turned into a public meeting at the PIA Chowk in which the speakers warned the government of stiff resistance if any attempt was made to privatise the hospitals.

They said that if privatised the treatment in these hospitals would go beyond the financial capacity of the common man because they would not be able to pay the exorbitant rates of fee of private managers of the hospitals.

They said that the people of Mastuj, Shagram and Garam Chashma in Chitral were already paying heavy fee of the hospitals managed this way as a patient paid Rs150 for outpatient department instead of Rs5 in the government hospital.

The JI leaders said that the provision of primary healthcare facilities to the people was the duty of the state while privatisation of hospitals would be against their basic rights. They criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government for its plan to privatise the DHQ hospital along with six rural health centres and 21 basic health units in Chitral and said that the people would never allow this.

COMMITS SUICIDE: A 50-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide in Shagram village of Upper Chitral by jumping into the Chitral River. Her body was later retrieved at Werkup and buried after postmortem.

Police sources told this scribe that the woman, a mother of two, was divorced some years ago and had been passing through stress after her separation. The police have started further investigations.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2019