ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to utilise 51 kanals commercial land located in Sector E-11 to support the economic sustainability of the proposed Jinnah Medical Complex (JMC), which is planned to be constructed in H-11.

The 51 kanal and 16 marla land located in the northern strip of E-11 was in the past fraudulently allotted by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to local landlords. The land remained in the possession of the local landlords for around two decades.

However, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) retrieved the land worth billions of rupees and now it has once again become the property of CDA.

Sources said NAB and CDA jointly repossess the land and when the matter was presented before Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he appreciated NAB for retrieving the land.

Over 51 kanals was fraudulently allotted to local landlords and retrieved by NAB after two decades

The prime minister stated that the land should be utilised for health projects, particularly JMC.

The JMC will be built in H-11; however, the commercial component of the project such as hotels and commercial areas will be built in E-11 and income generated from these activities will be the feeder for the economic sustainability of the JMC.

“Yes, government has directed us to utilise this land for JMC project and soon we will take further steps in this regard,” said one of the senior officers of CDA.

JMC was originally supposed to be built in H-16, where the prime minister had also laid its foundation stone in July 2024.

However, before the start of the work, the project got embroiled in controversies as the land was found not to be encumbrance free with pending compensation claims of local landlords.

This resulted in the shifting of the site to H-11/2 near the police lines.

Sources said that due to the controversy, international funding, which the government was exploring for JMC, also faced a setback. However, still the government wants to start the public welfare project as soon as possible.

Currently, geo-technical investigation is being carried out for JMC in the sector H-11.

The PC-I worth Rs212 billion had already been approved for the JMC which was to be executed in two phases.

In the first phase, a hospital will be constructed costing around Rs80 billion.

In the second phase, a medical college and other related facilities, including hostels, will be developed. Tendering process is being finalised for the first phase.

The project is an initiative of the federal government, with the federal health ministry and the CDA executing it. CDA is providing technical support related to tendering process.

The sources said four companies had been shortlisted for the project.

The health ministry will formally take over the project soon, they said.

Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony in July 2024, the prime minister had said the complex would be one of the region’s best medical centres, where deserving people would receive 100 per cent free medical treatment.

“This is a gift by the government not only for the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, but also for people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan,” Mr Sharif said.

Once completed, he added, the medical complex would offer world-class healthcare facilities with specialised sections for heart, kidney, lung and cancer diseases, among others.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026