KOHAT: The core committee of a local rights body has given a 10-day deadline to the CM’s adviser Ziaullah Bangash and the government to fulfill their promise of providing Rs50 million for purchase of CT scan and MRI machines for the KDA Teaching Hospital.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the core committee member Farhat Paracha, chairman Ibrar Kohat and others said the Tahaffuz-i-Haquq-i-Kohat would observe shutter down strike and block roads if their demands were not met within the deadline.

They said the CM’s adviser had promised that no patient would be referred to Peshawar from the hospital, but about 60 per cent of them were sent to the hospitals in the provincial capital.

They lamented that many sections of the hospital were closed for want of doctors and machinery. They regretted a neurosurgeon working in OPD had been referring patients to Peshawar for last one decade due to absence of an operation theatre, the ICU and the required equipment. Similarly, they pointed out that the burns centre had been shut for eight years.

They said two out of the four dialysis machines had been out of order for last two years, and the poor patients were being referred to private facilities.

Likewise, the rights activists pointed out that the hospital had four ventilators, but one had been out of order. They demanded six more ventilators keeping in view the number of Covid-19 patients. They said the category-A hospital needed a central oxygen plant. They demanded that the vacant posts of doctors, nurses and paramedics should be filled.

OUTLAWS ARRESTED: The police arrested 11 criminals and drug peddlers and also impounded 70 motorcycles which were without registration during a crackdown over the last two days. The operations were conducted in city, Saddar, headquarters and Lachi tehsil circles.

About 400 persons were also held during snap checking.

The police also arrested 10 proclaimed offenders and seized four Kalashnikovs, two rifles, four shotguns, 34 pistols, 60 chargers, 700 cartridges, 20kg hashish and 600 grams of heroin.

WORKSHOP: An NGO on Tuesday distributed masks and sanitisers among the participants during a workshop for the special people to create awareness among them about Covid-19.

Focal person of Handicap International, Nadia Qureshi gave a lecture on the importance of wearing masks, using hand santisers, gloves and observing social distancing to avoid getting infected by coronavirus.

Meanwhile, drug inspector Irfan Khan Wazir registered cases against owners of two medical stores for selling medicines without having drug sale licences.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020