Campus Conundrum: CDA yet to allot land for SZABMU

ISLAMABAD:  

The capital’s civic agency has still not responded to a request made by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutoo Medical University (SZABMU) for the allotment of 24 acres in Sector I-12 to set up a campus and a 700-bed teaching hospital. “We have identified 24 acres near IJP Road where we want to construct the campus and a 700-bed teaching hospital,” SZBMU Vice-Chancellor Dr Javed Akram told The Express Tribune on Friday. He said that they were waiting for the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA’s) response before they could prepare a PC-1 for the project. Dr Akram said that after its status was changed to a university, the patient load on Pims has also increased, with around 8,000 to 9,000 patients visiting the OPDs every day. SZABMU, established through an Act of Parliament on March 21, 2013, has no purpose-built campus for academic and medical activities and works out of Pims.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2016.