RAWALPINDI, March 9: The ground-breaking ceremony of the Institute of Plastic Surgery and Burn scheduled for Saturday could not take place because of some objections made the provincial health department.

Punjab governor Lt-Gen (Rtd) Khalid Maqbool was to lay the foundation stone of the project, but the ceremony had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour on the request of provincial health minister Prof (Dr) Mehmood Ahmad Chaudhry.

The hospital administration had conceived the project and sought permission for it from the provincial health secretary, who asked it to furnish the PC-1 of the plan. While all this was taking place, the district government got involved in the project and after getting governor’s verbal approval invited him to perform the ground-breaking ceremony.

Gen Maqbool, on the request of District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani, had announced the opening of the burn unit while performing the ground-breaking ceremony of Nullah Leh project in January.

The hospital administration claimed that the district Nazim had told them that the project had been approved by the governor. The district coordination officer later told the hospital administration that the governor would be performing the ground-breaking ceremony of the burn unit.

In the whole process, the health department was kept in the dark. The minister called up the principal executive officer of Rawalpindi’s autonomous hospitals, Prof (Dr) Naseemullah, to inquire about the project and convey his indignation over having been bypassed.

Dr Naseemullah, according to sources in his office, expressed his ignorance about the details of the project, saying it was district government’s initiative.

The health minister, when contacted for comments, said proper sanctions were not obtained for the mega project.

”There were several formalities, that needed to be fulfilled before going ahead with it”, he added.

He said it was naive to think that the project could be completed only through donations, adding that the Punjab government was ready to foot the bill of the unit, in view of its significance, but only after meeting all the requirements.

“Things are being channelized and, hopefully, the project will be launched within three to four weeks”, he added.