PESHAWAR: Treasury lawmakers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday voiced concern over the outsourcing of public “hospitals with high performance” and urged the government to remove them from the list of health centres marked for contracting out to the private sector.

The issue was first raised by treasury MPA Obaidur Rehman during a sitting of the KP Assembly that was held with MPA Mohammad Israr in the chair.

On a calling attention notice, Mr Rehman said that the government had decided to outsource health facilities with poor patient care and administrative and financial performance and included the Samar Bagh tehsil headquarters hospital in Lower Dir district in line with the findings of an “old survey”.

He said that the hospital’s performance was satisfactory, so it should not be outsourced.

Lawmaker Mehboob Sher claimed that the Ghalanai tehsil headquarters hospital in Mohmand tribal district was on the list of the hospitals being outsourced though it performed well. He demanded the removal of the hospital from the list.

They also complain about compensation denial to victims of Swat, Bajaur floods

The chair directed officials of the health department to sit with both MPAs to address their concerns and said if the lawmakers weren’t satisfied, a meeting would be held with the health minister on the issue.

MPA Liaquat Khan said that the Samar Bagh hospital was a medical college’s teaching hospital, whose outsourcing was decided in the cabinet meeting.

He said the relevant house committee should “decide” the issue.

Member Anwar Zeb Khan said that the Bashat Type-D hospital in Bajaur tribal district was outsourced in 2022 for better performance.

MPA Arshad Umarzai said that there was a shortage of doctors in the hospitals but authorities were addressing the issue.

He complained about the unavailability of medicines and demanded corrective measures besides upgradation of the district headquarters hospital in Umarzai to ease patient load on the tehsil headquarter hospitals.

Also, the lawmakers also highlighted the “denial” of compensation to the victims of the recent floods in Swat.

Lawmaker Fazal Hakeem complained that almost eight months had passed after flooding in Swat but many victims hadn’t received compensation yet.

He requested the chair to summon the relief secretary over the issue.

Also, member Anwar Zeb said that his constituency in Bajaur was declared a ‘calamity-hit’ area following several cloudburst incidents, so the relief department should compensate residents for damage to their property. He requested the chair to give a ruling for the purpose.

Housing minister Dr Amjal Ali said that the chair should refer the calling attention notice from MPA Obaidur Rehman to the relevant house committee for holding a meeting in three days to resolve the issue.

He said that a jirga was held in Swat, with members demanding compensation as announced by the government. He urged the chair to call the relief secretary to the house.

The issue was later referred to the relevant house committee with the directions to immediately hold a meeting and hear the grievances of the lawmakers.

During the session, opposition JUI-F member Rehana Ismail said that she was informed in reply to her question that a total of 337 community schools had been functioning in the merged districts since the region’s merger with KP in 2018 but the total number of teachers was 639 with each school having around two teachers.

She said that she was also told that the teachers were paid after the release of “allowance” by the finance department.

“The teachers are paid Rs30,000 a month, the amount lower than the minimum wage, and that, too, after a delay of months,” she complained.

The opposition lawmaker requested the chair to refer her question to the relevant house committee for discussion and recommendations.

The chair accepted the request and issued directions.

The house also passed the KP Education Testing and Evaluation Agency Bill, 2026, which was tabled by law minister Aftab Alam Afridi.

The members adopted a report of the Public Accounts Committee about the account of the provincial government for the financial year 2018-19 after its production by MPA Abdul Salam Afridi.

The chair later put off the sitting until May 11.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2026