GUJRAT, Oct 27 Installation of inaugural plaque at a newly-built maternity hospital in Dinga has become a bone of contention between rival politicians here.

Dinga police on Oct 13 registered a case against Naib District Nazim Mian Asghar Hayat, two union council nazims and district nazim's staff officer Qazi Khalid Saifullah under sections 448, 427, 511 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code for allegedly removing an inaugural plaque installed by an MPA and damaging the hospital building.

In response, District Nazim Chaudhry Shafaat Husain has written a letter to the district police officer and told him to cancel the case registered against his deputy and others.

He has written in the letter that the district nazim is the custodian of all properties of the district government under the local government law and business/property rules of the district government, therefore, he is the only person who can order a case if any damage is caused to the property of the district government.

He says contractor Ghazanfar Ali, who is complainant in the case, has nothing to do with the hospital, which was constructed by the district government and then handed over to the health department. Talking to Dawn, the district nazim described the registration of a criminal case against his staff officer, district naib nazim and two union council nazims as an act of political victimisation.

He alleged the forward bloc MPA was creating problems for the local government at the behest of the chief minister. He said the Punjab Assembly approved a privilege motion against him on Oct 16 after the MPA alleged removal of the inaugural plaque inscribed with his name by him and his supporters. The privilege motion had been sent to the relevant committee of the house.

The MPA said his daughter, Mariya Tariq, was elected MPA from PP-113 constituency (Dinga) in 2002 from the PML-Q platform and the then Punjab government initiated the hospital project on the recommendation of his daughter as well as the district nazim in 2006. He said he inaugurated the hospital on July 13 and an inaugural plaque inscribed with his name was installed there. He said the medical equipment purchased for the hospital could not be shifted to the health facility because it was locked by the district nazim.

When asked why the FIR was lodged by the contractor when the building had been handed over to the health department after its completion, the MPA said the contractor was given the keys of the hospital to finish with the power transformer installation. Hospital locks were broken in the meantime, he added.

Construction of the hospital, now at the heart of controversy, started in 2006 with a Rs20 million grant by the Pervaiz Elahi government and completed in February 2009. The hospital building was later handed over to the district health department, which had to deal with all its affairs now onward, including installation of medical equipment and recruitment of staff.

Sources in the health department said the department purchased equipment worth Rs15 million after Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif provided money for the purpose on the 'recommendation' of the MPA. Sharif also approved recruitment to 41 posts of various categories. The recruitment was scheduled to be completed by the first week of November. However, the recently purchased equipment had not been installed in the hospital because of the tussle between rival politicians.

The hospital is now in the control of the district nazim and it has been locked by his supporters.