ISLAMABAD: While 95pcof the work on the installation of a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) plant in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has been completed, the management of the hospital has once again requested the Public Works Department (PWD) to expedite the work.

While talking to Dawn, Pims Executive Director Prof. Dr Imran Sikander’s spokesperson, Dr Mubashar Mushtaq Daha, stated that the full responsibility for the installation of the plant lied with Pak PWD.

Mr Daha conveyed, “As the PWD is a government department, we have been left with no option but to continue pushing the PWD to complete the project at the earliest.

When the incumbent executive director took charge of the post, only 20 percent of the work was completed.

He continued pushing the PWD, and now 95 percent of the work has been completed,“ Mr Daha added.

He further informed that the project was nearing completion, and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences management was trying its best to complete the project as early as possible.

In June this year, doctors at Pims held a protest against the non-functioning of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in a number of departments, including the emergency department, due to which the next day, then-health minister Abdul Qadir Patel visited the hospital and directed the administration to install air conditioners in

the emergency ward within 24 hours.

Later, the minister had said that the project of the cooling system was delayed because of the PWD, adding that he had spoken to the Secretary of Housing and

Works to expedite the upgrade process.

In the same month, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi gifted six air conditioners to the Pims, and they were installed in the wards of the hospital within a few hours.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2023