ISLAMABAD: With most development projects dormant due to the coronavirus pandemic, health authorities have decided to expedite the establishment of Pakistan’s first nursing university.

The project, which is supposed to cater to 2,000 students with 500 annual admissions and residential facilities for 1,000 women, has been delayed for more than four years.

The university will be funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, as announced by King Hamad in 2014, as a gift to Pakistan. The Pakistani government is responsible for arranging land and utilities for the university, while Bahrian will fund its construction.

NHS ministry spokesperson Sajid Shah said that the government of Bahrain has to build the university, while the ministry has to provide the land and utility services. Therefore, Bahrain has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Logistics Cell for the university’s construction.

“Although the construction of the university was delayed due to Covid-19, it is hoped that the project will be expedited after the Eid holidays,” he said.

The King Hamad University of Nursing and Associated Medical Sciences will be constructed on 237 kanals of land on Park Road in Chak Shahzad.

In July 2016, a Bahraini delegation visited Islamabad to finalise the project, which could not begin because of the unavailability of land. In January 2017, then prime minister Nawaz Sharif laid a foundation stone at the proposed location of the university, accompanied by a number of prominent individuals and dignitaries from Bahrain.

However, possession of the land was not obtained and 700 people filed applications with the Capital Development Authority with ownership claims on the land, which was located in the constituency of then Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

In September 2017, then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi held a meeting and directed the CADD ministry to address the land issue.

Even then, possession of the land was not given to the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS).

When the PTI came into power, then NHS minister Aamer Mehmood Kiani announced that the university would be built on the premises of the National Institute of Health (NIH), and the land in Chak Shahzad would later be handed over to the NIH.

But in January 2019, then chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the possession of the land in Chak Shahzad to be given to the NHS ministry.

This meant that the university would once again be constructed on Park Road.

On the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in May last year, then special assistant to the prime minister on NHS Dr Zafar Mirza spoke to the Bahraini health minister, who assured him she would play her role in the project.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2020