‘Performance-based certification a joke’
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has called the performance-based certification of federal ministers a "big political drama".
This he said on Saturday while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the first Centre of Excellence in Robotic Surgery and Training of Pakistan at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).
"The best performing minister has failed to construct an Rs14 billion road from Jamshoro to Sehwan, even though the Sindh government paid its share of Rs7 billion in 2017," the CM asserted.
"As a result, hundreds of people have died in road accidents there. This is the performance of the number one minister," he lamented.
Shah added another minister, who ranked 11 in the performance list, has written a letter to the prime minister, complaining against "making him a minion". Shah likened the entire scenario to a dramatic comedy staged by the PM.
"All its characters/federal ministers will make themselves a laughingstock," he said.
Talking about the performance of his cabinet, the chief minister said all members were performing to the best of their abilities. Replying to another question, Shah said a no-confidence motion would be moved in the national and provincial assemblies.
"The move, as stated by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, will be decisive and it has been endorsed by the PDMA.
Talking about the performance of the federal government, the CM accused the Centre of depriving poor people of square meals by increasing the prices of basic commodities.
Robotic surgery Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Saturday that robot-assisted surgery has been the top innovation in the medical field.
"What makes it useful is the ability to take fine and precise actions under the command of a human surgeon," he said.
"The small spaces in the body where the surgeon's hands cannot reach, and eyes can't see, are easily approached by robotic arms."
The ceremony was attended by Health Parliamentary Secretary Qasim Siraj Soomro, Health Secretary Zulfiqar Shah, Professor Dr Adib Rizvi and other concerned professors and doctors.
The CM said that the excellent magnification and precision of robotic instruments enabled human surgeons to perform precisely what they want in order to make a patient disease-free.
Tracing the history of the Robotic Surgery Department and Training Centre at SIUT, Shah said that the first robot was acquired by the Sindh Government in 2017 from the Intuitive Surgical Company in the USA and it used the da Vinci System.
The device was used both by Dr Ruth Fau, Civil Hospital and SIUT and later the robot was moved to a dedicated Robotic Surgery Unit in SIUT, he said.
They recalled that in order to establish a Robotic Surgical Unit, a fund was established where the initial seed funding was provided by the Sindh government.
Other main contributors were Bashir Dawood and SIUT North America. The CM said that recently, two robotic surgical units were acquired by SIUT from Cambridge Medical Robotics (CMR) and used the Versius system.
"These are currently used by many centres in Europe, Middle East, India and Latin America, '' he said. Shah continued that the acquisition is part of the SIUT philosophy to remain at the cutting-edge of technology.
The CM stated that robotic surgery was considered the future of surgical sciences.
"The robotic procedures are associated with less pain, less blood loss, and faster recovery," he said.