OVER the last 10 years, there have been several extensions in the deadline to make operational the much-needed Benazir Bhutto Children Hospital at the Medical Teaching Institution (MTI), Mardan. The work on the hospital was started in late 2011, and it was supposed to be completed in 2014.

Though about 90 per cent of the civil work is complete, and outpatient departments (OPDs) started functioning in 2018, the hospital is still a dream owing to lack of funds. Two successive provincial governments of the same party failed to give the attention the project needed to get fully functional. Now that the party has got the chance to run the province for the third consecutive time, the responsibility to make the hospital fully operational falls upon it.

Once the hospital gets operational, it will cater to the needs of not only the people of Mardan, but around 35pc population of the province, including the residents of Swabi, Nowshera, Charsadda, Buner and the whole of Malakand division.

Waseem Abbas
Swabi

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2024