MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United Kingdom (UK) based charity for the construction of a state-of-the-art cardiac hospital in Mirpur.

The proposed hospital would provide treatment of cardiac ailments not only to the residents of AJK’s southern districts but also neighbouring areas of Punjab, members of the ceremony, held at Kashmir House Islamabad, were told.

Barrister Abid Hussain, chief executive officer of Developing World Healthcare, and Maj Gen Zaheer Akhtar, AJK’s secretary for health services, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides, following which AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas handed over the land transfer letter to the charity’s top official.

According to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Developing World Healthcare provides medical and surgical interventions to patients in remote and poverty-stricken regions of the world providing quality treatment they need through access to appropriate medical personnel.

“I have seen the sincerity of this team and I feel certain that they will raise the best ever health facility in the liberated territory,” asserted the AJK premier, who vowed that a hospital for liver transplant would also be built in AJK.

Appreciating the design of the proposed cardiac facility in Mirpur, Mr Ilyas maintained that what enhanced its worth and utility was its status as a teaching hospital.

“There is a dire need to improve the capacity of our medical faculty so that not only the much-needed research work is done at our teaching hospitals and medical colleges but we are also able to attract foreign students,” he said.

In the same context, the AJK premier suggested that health professionals should organise seminars and workshops on multiple variants of diseases that otherwise were getting less attention at the hands of health professionals.

“Affluent people should step forward for such altruistic acts that carry rewards here and in the hereafter. Being one such project, this hospital will also become the source of forgiveness for all concerned,” he said, adding, his government would extend all possible support to those intending to launch any kind of charitable work.

“Similarly, we will also welcome and facilitate everyone from our diaspora community who plans to plough money in any commercial venture in this state,” he said, adding that he had a vast experience of private sector investments and enjoyed the confidence of the public in this regard as well.

“Corporate sector requires extra struggle. I am not an angel and may have shortcomings, but my aim is to serve my people and that gives me strength to keep on keeping on,” he said. Seizing the opportunity, the prime minister also spoke about the diaspora’s role in exposing India’s state sponsored terrorism in India-held Kashmir and early settlement of the longstanding dispute.

“I will shortly lead a delegation to UK and Europe to draw the attention of opinion makers there towards unrelenting persecution of our brethren in occupied Kashmir, struggling for a right pledged to them by the United Nations and the international community,” he said.

In his response, Barrister Hussain expressed gratitude to PM Ilyas for his appreciation of the charity as well as his keen interest in its cardiac hospital project and assured him that they would leave no stone unturned to accomplish it in time.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023