Mother and Child Hospital faces further delay

The Mother and Child Healthcare Hospital in Rawalpindi, which has remained under construction for the past 21 years, is unlikely to be completed during the current fiscal year despite being converted into a Children's Hospital project in 2026.

The Punjab government has allocated only Rs494.4 million in the current budget and shifted the remaining funds to the next fiscal year, leaving the completion of the long-delayed project uncertain once again.

According to details, the foundation stone of the 200-bed Mother and Child Hospital, along with other departments, was laid by then prime minister Shaukat Aziz on April 8, 2005, on 105 kanals of land adjacent to the TB Hospital on Asghar Mall Road.

Before the July 18, 2018 elections, then chief justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar visited the project on July 1, 2018, while former prime minister Imran Khan also visited it in May 2019. Despite these efforts, the project could not be completed and the unfinished structures suffered extensive weather-related damage. The current Punjab government transferred the project from the federal government and announced the establishment of a 400-bed Children's Hospital, pledging its completion by December 2026.

However, in the Punjab budget for FY27, against the total project cost of Rs9.26 billion, expenditures up to June 2026 were estimated at Rs327.99 million.