PESHAWAR, Jan 2: The NWFP Chief Minister, Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani, has ordered construction of retiring rooms in the Khyber Teaching Hospital for attendants of patients, official sources said.

"The chief minister has issued directives to the health department to prepare a feasibility report in this regard so that construction work could be started at the earliest", sources said.

According to the sources, thousands of attendants of patients in the city's main hospital have to pass days and nights in the open because of lack of waiting rooms. A health department official said the government did not have funds to build waiting rooms.

"We built some waiting rooms but people have stolen fans and tube-lights from there. The bulk of hospitals' budget is consumed by salaries, maintenance and purchase of medicines," he said.

The sources said that Mr Durrani was eager to get the construction work started and completed as early as possible. According to the sources, the chief minister has also taken notice of the labourers, who routinely sleep on footpaths after day-long hard work, near the KTH and has ordered the authorities concerned that these labourers would also be entitled to use these rooms.

An official at the KTH said that they had enough space to build retiring rooms for patients' attendants, but said that they had not received any such directives. "We have already made some waiting places, but these are not fit for the use of attendants", he said.