KURRAM: Expressing concern over shortage of doctors and poor healthcare service delivery system at the district headquarters hospital, Parachinar, the elders of various tribes in Kurram tribal district have warned to hold a sit-in protest in front of the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar if the government failed to fill all the posts of doctors within a week.

A jirga of elders of Turi and Bangash tribes held in Parachinar on Friday discussed the bad condition of the district headquarters hospital. Representatives of various political parties and civil society also attended the gathering.

The participants noted that around 150 posts, including that of specialist doctors, had been lying vacant in the hospital, which was established in 1979.

The elders recalled that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and provincial ministers during their visits to Kurram had announced upgradation of the hospital and establishment of medical college in Parachinar. They said that these announcements were yet to be materialised.

They said that people were forced to take their patients for treatment to Peshawar and Islamabad because of lack of specialist doctors in the DHQ hospital.

The jirga decided that the people of Kurram would organise a sit-in protest in front of the CM House in Peshawar if shortage of doctors was not addressed within a week.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021