PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation to conditionally hand over the Haripur District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital to a private medical college for teaching purpose.

Justice Lal Jan Khattak ad Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali declared that the private medical college would have to return the hospital if a public sector medical college established in future required it for teaching.

The bench also directed the privately-owned Windsor Medical College, Haripur, to submit an undertaking pledging to return the hospital if required by a public sector college in future.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Windsor Medical College against the non-handover of the DHQ Hospital to it for using it as a teaching health facility despite the signing of an agreement with the government.

High court rules hospital to be returned if a govt college requires it for teaching purpose

Advocate Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah Qureshi appeared for the petitioner and said that the Windsor Medical College was set up in 2015.

He said that under the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council rules, the college was required to have an affiliated health facility for teaching purpose.

The counsel said that his client had given an application to the health department for its handover to the DHQ hospital for use by students.

He added that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Foundation had visited for that purpose and declared the college to be suitable for teaching.

Mr Qureshi said that the college had submitted the required fee of Rs3 million and also signed an agreement with the foundation.

He claimed that the foundation had also informed the regulator that the petitioner-college was fit for imparting medical education.

Qazi Jawad said that the foundation had been using delaying tactics and not handing over the hospital to be used as a teaching health facility.

He said that the board of governors of the foundation had pleaded that it would hold bidding for the purpose and that despite the petitioner being the highest bidder, the foundation was reluctant to accept its plea.

The counsel claimed that the foundation had put forward condition that if there was no plan of setting up a public sector medical college in Haripur district in the next five years, then it was willing to hand over the hospital to the petitioner.

He added that under an earlier agreement, the petitioner was only bound to return the hospital within a year of the setting up of any public sector medical college.

Lawyers for the KP Health Foundation and health department contended that an international organisation had shown interest to work in the hospital and improve health facilities there.

They said that there was also a possibility of the upgradation of the DHQ Hospital in near future due to which it could not be handed over to a private medical college.

Following the completion of arguments, the bench decided to order the conditional handover of the hospital to the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2022