PESHAWAR, June 17: Under the rule of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the VIP culture is thriving in government hospitals, as everywhere else, despite MMA's claims of having done away with it.

Doctors and health workers told Dawn that five days ago, a top MMA leader was examined by a senior professor in the VVIP Room No. 1 of the Khyber Teaching Hospital. Nobody could object to that in view of the status of the leader.

However, a doctor at the hospital said, eyebrows were raised when his two relatives were accorded the same VIP treatment, and were given free medicines. According to him, the MMA leader was received at the hospital gate by a team of doctors and was taken to the VVIP room where he was attended to by the senior professor.

A technician said that two months ago, the father of a senior minister was admitted to a VIP room and he was operated upon the following morning. "One room was occupied by the patient and three others were reserved for guests and attendants.

Officials of the administration remained there round the clock to ensure best possible services to the minister's father," he said. A dispenser was assigned to sit beside his bed during the day and another for the night.

Usually, no dispenser serves in private rooms in the night shift, the doctor said. The same privileges were accorded to a brother of the top MMA leader who had met with an accident.

"The hospital administration allotted three private rooms for his guests and attendants. A consultant of the orthopaedic ward worked overtime to ensure best treatment. One staff nurse had been tasked to look after him," said a medical officer.

According to him, the gentleman, who is a member of the National Assembly, was entitled to a private room and free treatment, but he occupied three additional rooms for which he didn't pay a penny.

Similarly, a 22-year-old MMA activist from Charsadda is getting all the VIP facilities in the KTH orthopaedic ward. Doctors said that he had been brought to the ward on June 10 and Maulana Fazlur Rehman visited him the following day. "He is not entitled to the facilities that are being provided to him", a doctor said.

He said that drugs were not there in the ward for common people who were supposed to buy everything, from syringes to medicines, from the market, "but the so-called VIP was getting all medicines free". Two provincial ministers visited him on Wednesday.

A blood bank technician has been suspended on the complaint of the activist, and a copy of the office order seeking the technician's explanation for his 'conduct' was provided to the patient on Tuesday.

"Actually, relatives of the patient wanted to get blood for him without fulfilling legal formalities. The technician refused to give blood and he was issued a show-cause notice," a technician said.