GUJRAT: Workers of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Friday staged a sit-in demanding the establishment of a tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital in Jalalpur Jattan.

Being the second major urban town of Gujrat district, Jalalpur Jattan does not have a THQ hospital despite the upgradation of the town as a tehsil headquarter around four years ago.

The JI workers gathered at Adda Tam Tam, the city’s main square, and staged a strong protest against the district administration as well as the Punjab government for their failure to provide basic health facilities to the area population.

JI Jalalpur Jattan Emir Mudabbar Siddique, PP29 emir Anas Mujahid and other local leaders led the protest demonstration where city’s patients welfare association former president Meraj Deen and other representatives of the civil society also participated.

The participants were carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands.

The local JI leaders said that the newly-created tehsil had a population of around 600,000 that had been deprived of basic health facilities because of lack of a public sector THQ hospital.

They said that even the condition of the existing small civil hospital was not up to the mark and it lacked doctors, paramedics and medicines.

They deplored that even smaller towns of Gujrat district like Kunjah and Dinga had THQ hospitals, but Jalalpur Jattan, known for its textile cottage industry and other businesses, had never been given such a health facility.

The JI vowed to continue its drive for the establishment of a THQ hospital and announced that the next sit-in would be held on April 12.

Later, the participants offered the funeral prayers in absentia of a cop of Gujrat police, Umar Beig, who was martyred during an encounter with robbers near Karianwala a couple of days ago.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2026