KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the notification issued by the federal government to take over three health facilities of Sindh – JPMC, NICVD and NICH – had created uncertainty; therefore, it must be withdrawn in the larger interest of health services being provided by those institutions.

While presiding over a meeting here at CM House Chief Minister said that the federal government had issued a notification to take over the administrative control of NICVD, JPMC and NICH. “This decision has created a panic like situation and uncertainty which is bound to affect the performance of these best institutes,” he said and added that the Ministry of National Health Services should have held a preparatory meetings with the provincial government to work out modalities as directed by the Supreme Court, but sorry to say no such meeting was held. “I am surprised that no such intimation of taking over the health facilities had been communicated to the hospitals’ administration,” he said.

The meeting was attended by Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho, Advisor to CM Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Finance Najam Shah, Special Secretary Health Asghar Memon, Executive Director NICVD Dr Nadeem Qamar, Executive Director JPMC Seemi Jamali , Director NICH Dr Jamal Raza, Special Secretary Health (Dev) Dr Dabeer and other  officers.

Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court and the federal government should have waited till the final verdict of the court, but “abruptly, they [fed govt] issued a notification and created an uncertainty,” he said.

Chief Minister directed the Advocate General Sindh to file an urgent application in the Supreme Court for hearing of review petition. “Our various important projects are going on in all the three health facilities and various others are in the pipeline; therefore, they also wanted to settle the issue so that provincial government could move forward accordingly,” he said.

Sindh Provincial Head said that the provincial government with its hard work and dedication had made those three health facilities as state of the art institutions with huge budgetary allocations and expansion. He added that the provincial government had established eight satellites centers of NICVD in different districts of the province.

The satellites of NICH have been planned to establish in other district and JPMC emergency and Cyber Knife projects had started functioning. “We feel that the provincial government can run these institutions in a best way because we are very close to them; therefore, the provincial government should be allowed to flourish them further under its administrative control,” he concluded.