KARACHI: While seeking withdrawal of a notification on the establishment of a board of governors (BoG) for running three key tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, the Sindh government has proposed to the federal government to reach an agreement with it to manage and operate these facilities.

The suggestion has recently been communicated by the Sindh Health and Population Welfare Minister, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, through a letter addressed to Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan.

The letter dated March 22 titled ‘Transfer of hospitals from government of Sindh to the federal government’ describes the federal notification relating to the establishment of a BoG for running the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Child Health (NICH) and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) as a “violation of the Supreme Court judgement which requires that the federal government reimburse the government of Sindh all disbursements and financial outlays made and expenditures incurred by it from June 29, 2011 till the date of the return”.

The Sindh government, according to the letter, has so far incurred Rs100 billion on the management and operations of these hospitals since 2011.

The provincial govt claims to have spent Rs100bn on JPMC, NICVD and NICH since 2011

Making a case for running the three hospitals under an agreement with the provincial government, the health minister refers to a federal cabinet’s decision pertaining to the transfer of the Sheikh Zayed Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, as well as JPMC, NICVD and NICH from the provinces to the federal government.

“The cabinet considered the summary dated 17 June, 2019 submitted by National Health Services Regulation Division for transfer of hospitals from provinces to the federal government and decided ‘in principle’ to hand over these hospitals to respective provincial governments with their mutual consent.

Management contract

“A report in this regard, with full justification including current financial constraints of the federal government, will be submitted by the National Health Services Regulation Division before the Supreme Court in order to avoid any adverse order of the Honourable Court,” the letter read.

This matter, the health minister wrote, was pursued by Dr Zafar Mirza, the then SAPM health, who sent a letter dated July 8, 2019, to the attorney general of Pakistan, informing him about the cabinet’s decision and requesting implementation of the same.

“In his letter, the then special assistant to the prime minister on health also shared the recommendations of the committee constituted in pursuance of the decision of the federal cabinet taken in its meeting held on May 28, 2019.”

One of the recommendations of the committee, according to the letter, was that the federal government can have a management contract with provincial governments on mutually agreed terms encompassing all financial and governance-related aspects ensuring efficiency, accountability and transparency.

The health minister also cited a part of the Supreme Court’s decision dated Jan 7, 2019 and argued that the judgement did not bar the federal government and the provincial government from entering into a management and operations agreement to enable the provincial government to manage and operate these three institutions.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021