HARIPUR, July 22: The fate of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, Kot Najibullah branch, hangs in balance as the Trust has so far not arranged finance for its functioning, sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

The chief of the hospital, Imran Khan, had formally inaugurated the branch at Kot Najibullah some 8km from here in November last. The building for the hospital was donated by a  local philanthropist, Raja Haq Nawaz, who spent his most of the life in Europe and spent millions on the decoration of 23-room house, now formally declared as the first cancer hospital in Hazara division.

The donor was reportedly himself a cancer patient and donated his house as a service for the cancer patients.

On the occasion of the inauguration, Imran Khan had announced that to begin with his trust would open a pathology laboratory in Kot Najibullah building only and the detected cases would be referred to main hospital, as according to him, the project needed huge finances owing to costly treatment of cancer.

Hazara division has been in dire need of such facility and the inauguration of SKMT Haripur branch was believed to be a source of consolation for cancer patients who were unable to bear heavy expenses of the treatment in other parts of the country.

According to donor’s family, the SKMT’s administration after the lapse of over one year has not taken any initiative in this regard.