Development: Federal govt to establish four hospitals in G-B

Cardiac unit among hospitals planned, while roads in Ghizer and Astore to be improved

GILGIT: The federal government has decided to set up four major hospitals in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) to ensure better health facilities for the residents.

A decision to this effect was taken in Central Working Committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif earlier this week in Islamabad.

“The PM has accorded his approval to this project,” said Sajjad Haq, an official at the chief minister’s office, on Thursday.

“The expenses of the hospitals will also be borne by the federal government,” he said adding that the meeting had also been attended by G-B Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman.

The decision is considered a major breakthrough in the health sector for G-B where lack of modern health facilities force people to travel around 500 kilometres to the federal capital for treatment of major diseases.

According to another official privy to the development, a cardiac unit is among the four hospitals to be built in G-B. The state-of-the-art cardiac unit project had been conceived during the government of General (retired) Pervez Musharraf but was never implemented.

In its five year term, which ended in 2015, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) too had failed to implement the project even though it claimed it had identified the land on which the hospital would be built.

“In addition, the meeting has decided about improving road infrastructure in Ghizer and Astore valleys,” said the official.

CPEC to benefit G-B

While talking to The Express Tribune this week, Chief Minister Hafeezur Rehman said G-B will greatly benefit from the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which will pass through this region. “The prime minister has assured us of that.”

He said that while CPEC is in its initial phase, power and infrastructure projects for the region will be allocated as part of the corridor plans.

“G-B will not lag behind in any sector,” he said while referring to concerns people have been expressing on social media in recent days.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2016.