LOWER DIR: A number of doctors in the District Headquarters Hospital, Timergara announced here the other day not to conduct surgeries at private hospitals under the Sehat Insaf Card programmein protest against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s failure to include the public sector health facility in the initiative.

The announcement was made during a meeting attended by over 50 senior physicians and surgeons.

Later, in a letter addressed to the medical superintendent, the doctors informed him about the decision and said they won’t conduct operations in private hospitals under the scheme.

The participants noted that while private hospitals had been entitled to provide healthcare to patients on Sehat cards the major public sector hospitals had been ignored.

The doctors said as patients from Lower and Upper Dir, Chitral and Bajaur visited the DHQ hospital for treatment the government should include the facility in the Sehat Insaf Card programme.

payment of dues demanded: Contractors in Lower Dir district on Wednesday warned that they would boycott fresh bidding and stop work on development projects if the government failed to release funds for the early payment of their dues.

The warning was issued during a meeting of the Government Contractors’ Association in Balambat area.

The speakers, including district president of the association Ikramullah, general secretary Imran Takur and leaders Riaz Shoaib and Ahmad Jan, complained that the government had made only Rs5.6 million out of the Rs80 million payments to be made to contractors.

They said the contractors were struggling to manage things.

The speakers complained that funds for Swat, Swabi, Haripur and Nowshera districts had been released but Lower Dir district had been ignored by the government.

They demanded of the government to release at least 50 per cent of the funds allocated for development projects and warned if that didn’t happen, they would not only stop work on projects but move the courts of law as well.

The contractors also said they would boycott bidding for development projects if their demands were not met.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2020