LAHORE: The months-long delay in formation of Boards of Governors (BoGs) to make the newly-established two multi-billion mega cardiac institutions functional, has increased the suffering of heart patients who are left with limited choices - the massively burdened public sector facilities or expensive private hospitals.

The 250-bed Jinnah Institute of Cardiology (JIC) Lahore and 200-bed Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cardiology (NIC), Sargodha, were raised in the tenure of the PML-N government and they were at the top priority of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.

Nearing completion, the JIC Lahore and NIC Sargodha are awaiting nomination of members of the respective BoGs despite a lapse of three months since a ‘search and nomination committee’ was notified on June 30, 2025.

A senior official told Dawn that both the institutes wielded a special status as per Punjab Specialised Health Act 2025, passed by the provincial assembly.

He said the search and nomination committee notified in this regard included Punjab minister for health, secretary (health), additional chief secretary, retired Gen Dr Azhar Kayani, Dr Adnan Khan and Prof Dr Farqad Alamgir.

Recommendations lying with CM for final approval

The official said Prof Kayani was serving as the adviser to the Punjab chief minister on health while Prof Farqad Alamgir was already holding a post of chairman of the Board of Management (BoM) of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Lahore, along with the chairman of the CM committee on cardiac care and Dr Adnan Khan, an eminent physician.

The official source said the committee took some three months or so to initiate and complete the process for the nomination of the members of the BoG for the above-mentioned cardiac institutes, ignoring the fact that Punjab was experiencing an escalating burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), which have been a leading cause of death, with rates significantly higher than the global average.

There were reports that they had sent the nominations to the Punjab chief minister a couple of weeks back and the same were awaiting her final approval.

One of the members of the committee, Mr Kyani, confirmed this to Dawn that the committee has scrutinised the names for the BoG members and sent recommendations to the CM some two weeks back for approval.

On the other hand, the heart patients continued to suffer in getting treatment at their doorsteps due to the delay in the formation of the BoGs.

He said the JIC Lahore remained at the centre of controversies following the CM’s announcement when she had renamed it as Maryam Nawaz Institute of Cardiology.

However, the Rs15 billion worth of JIC’s building infrastructure has neared completion while the other one established in Sargodha [at a cost of Rs9bn] has made its OPD partially functional.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2025