KARACHI: The issue of the administrative transfer of three Karachi hospitals has once again pitted the Centre against the Sindh government as the provincial authorities refused to hand over administrative control.
The Sindh government in a letter penned to the federal government has decided against to handover the administrative control to the federal government by terming the formation of the Board of Governors (BoG) as against the SC’s orders.
The federal government and the attorney general have also recommended not to take administrative control of three hospitals, the letter read,
The federal government has started the process of taking over Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH), which has been a matter of dispute between Sindh and Islamabad.
The Federal government had issued a notification regarding the takeover of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Karachi.
According to a notification issued by the federal government on March 19, “The federal government has been pleased to constitute a Board of Governors, in respect of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi under section 4 of the Federal Medical Teaching Institute Ordinance 2020.”
The board of members includes Mushtaq Kassim Chappra, Philanthropist and Industrialist, Ms. Ronaq Lakhani, Philanthropist, Dr Muhammad Irfan Daudi, Associate Professor Surgery/Consultant Surgeon and Mr Rashid A. Khan, Businessman.
Meanwhile, the sources had claimed that the Sindh Health department has opposed the formation of the BoG and has announced not to be a part of it.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in its judgment had given the control of the three major public-sector hospitals – NICVD, JPMC and NICH – to the federal government and directed the provincial and federal governments to complete a smooth transition of the hospitals’ control.
The verdict had been announced when the Sindh government and the health institutions approached the court with a claim that since the subject of health had been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment, the management of the JPMC, NICVD and NICH also vested with the Sindh government.
