CHITRAL: The naib nazim of Melp village council in Upper Chitral, Mohammad Qadir Khan has demanded of the government to take notice of the two-year-long closure of the area’s civil dispensary due to absence of the medical technician.

Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, he said the civil dispensary was the sole facility of primary healthcare for 650 households of the village, which was an isolated sub-valley surrounded by mountains in Torkhow valley.

He complained that all the resolutions and written complaints of the council regarding the absence of the medical technician to the health department high-ups and the district administration fell on deaf ears as no action was taken against the truant official named Bashiruddin hailing from nearby Rayeen village.

Qadir Khan regretted that due to prolonged absence of the official, the medicines worth Rs300,000, including lifesaving drugs, had expired in the dispensary’s store. He said the residents of the backward village were now forced to travel to the tehsil headquarters hospital, Booni, or DHQ hospital Chitral at great expense.

“I have a list of 16 persons, including women and children, whose lives could have been saved if the civil dispensary functioned during the last one year,” he said.

He said keeping in view the importance of the dispensary, the village council had constructed a room with a store, last year, out of its development funds, but the health department was not taking its charge.

District health officer Dr Haiderul Mulk told Dawn on contact that the proper action would be taken against the absent health staffer.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2019