MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 2: AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan has asked the medical fraternity to prepare and devote itself to serve the people of rural areas who constituted almost ninety per cent of Azad Kashmir’s population.

“Medical is an important and noble profession and those affiliated with this profession must prepare and devote themselves to serve the ninety per cent of the population living in rural areas,” he said at a ceremony in Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) after laying the foundation stone of family surgical ward.

Construction of the 150-bed ward at a cost of Rs35 million is part of the phase II of the institute, which is most likely to be the home to the proposed medical college in Azad Kashmir.

The ceremony was attended, among others, by Legislative Assembly speaker Sardar Siab Khalid, communication and works minister Syed Mumtaz Ali Gillani, religious affairs minister Hafiz Hamid Raza and senior government officials, besides members of the medical fraternity.

The prime minister said it was unfortunate that the masses were not satisfied with the services of the doctors as well as with the healthcare facilities.

“Today, after completion of studies, our doctors are not ready to serve in the villages, notwithstanding their own affiliation with rural area,” he pointed out, stressing that the doctors would have to show the “sense of national responsibility to serve the ailing humanity.”

Earlier, the premier said the government was striving to facilitate the people of state by providing them all amenities of life at their doorstep.

Apart from establishing new hospitals with latest facilities, the government was also ensuring that the already existing hospitals received maximum staff, medicines and other facilities, he said.

He directed the officials of health and Zakat and Ushr departments not to delay the cases of those who required treatment outside Azad Kashmir.

There should not be any hurdle in payment of financial aid or reimbursement of treatment expenditures to cardiac and renal patients, as they required immediate treatment, he said, adding that otherwise, the government’s policy to do “virtuous deeds” would remain ineffective.

Apart from health sector, he said the government was also making tireless efforts to promote quality education. In this connection, he recounted a number of steps such as appointment of science teachers and provision of equipment to different educational institutions.

Azad Kashmir, the premier recalled, was backward in every field before its liberation in 1947 but today its inhabitants were now enjoying almost every facility, which was the blessing of freedom.