RAWALPINDI, Jan 22: District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani has withdrawn a proposal to put District Headquarters Hospital under the administrative control of district government after strong opposition from various quarters.

Speaking at a ceremony held in connection with the launching of sub-national immunization day (SNID) here on Tuesday, he said, “the present status of the hospital will remain intact.”

“The district government does not want to downgrade the DHQ,” he said adding, “it must work as a teaching hospital and we will equip it with more facilities to benefit the people.”

Earlier, on a proposal of the District Nazim that he needs a hospital totally under his administrative control, the Punjab governor had issued the directive asking the health department to consider it.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the DHQ Hospital was likely to be downgraded from a teaching hospital to a health care unit.

Mr Kiani said the provincial government had approved the setting up of a burn unit to be donated by philanthropists at the hospital.

Lauding the services of the DHQ hospital medical superintendent, Dr Zubair Hassan, he appealed to the provincial government to withdraw the orders of his transfer so that the district might continue to benefit from his services.

He also appealed to the parents having children below the age of five years to make the polio vaccination campaign a success.

It may be mentioned that during the three-day campaign, 544,360 children of less than five years of age in Rawalpindi district would be administered polio vaccine.

The campaign would continue till Thursday.