SUKKUR, June 27: Renowned psychiatrist, Dr Mubin Akhtar, opened a branch of the Karachi Psychiatric Welfare Hospital in Sukkur. Jamaat-i-Islami Sindh Ameer Capt (Dr) Mumtaz Ali Memon inaugurated the hospital at a ceremony held here Monday.

A large number of elected representatives, businessmen, and social and political workers of Sukkur, Rohri and other adjoining towns attended the ceremony.

Dr Memon said that there had been a massive increase in mental and psychiatry diseases in the interior of Sindh due to growing unemployment, lawlessness and rising of prices of essential commodities. He quoted statistics from different areas of Sindh which showed there had been a multiple increase of psychiatric patients over the years.

He said that due to limited number of psychiatrists, the patients had to take the ordeal of going either to Karachi or other remote cities of the country for what he called “costly treatment”.

Hospital director Dr Syed Salahuddin said the branch would cater to psychiatry-related diseases of the people from Upper Sindh, some parts of Southern Punjab and Balochistan.—BoC