Helping hand: Bahria Foundation to adopt Gulmit hospital

Mehdi Shah assures the Attabad lake will be drained in two months, two doctors to be deputed at tehsil.

GULMIT: Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah said that two army doctors, including a lady doctor, will be deputed at Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Gulmit, to provide treatment to the stranded people. He said this while visiting calamity-hit Gojal Valley on Thursday.

Shah added that the hospital will be handed over to Bahria Foundation, a non-government organisation.

The chief minister, however, failed to update the local people about any permanent solution for the lack of health facilities in the tehsil.

Talking about Attabad Lake, Mehdi Shah assured that the lake will be drained in two months. Drainage will be completed in phases to avoid potential damages to settlements upstream and downstream.

Hunza-Nagar Deputy Commissioner Zafar Waqar Taj said that he is in constant touch with Frontier Works Organisation personnel working on the deepening and widening of the spillway.

Taj also said the rise in water level due to blockade of the spillway will not cause any more destruction upstream.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2011.