Skewed priorities: Medical varsity may be set up in EPI building

The two-storey building spread over five acres currently houses vaccines worth Rs13 billion.

ISLAMABAD:

A building compound housing vaccine worth Rs13 billion will most likely serve as a makeshift home to the fast-tracked Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), official sources said.

The decision was made even before the Cabinet approved the proposed draft for the varsity’s bill on Wednesday, sources requesting anonymity said.

The building of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) at National Institute of Health was earmarked for SZABMU by an eight-member steering committee headed by Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi. The committee was constituted by the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development to look after the affairs of SZABMU.

The building currently houses vaccines worth Rs13 billion in more than 22 storage rooms. The two-storey six-block compound is spread over five acres and also has offices for about 80 technical staff members of the EPI.



The decision of the allotment was made without consulting officials from the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) or EPI, sources said.

The total cost of the university project is Rs3 billion out of which Rs500 million have been released by the Planning Commission. The university’s building will be constructed within the premises of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), but that will take time, which is why the university will be housed in the EPI building, according to sources.

SZABMU is likely to be inaugurated within a month.



One of the building’s sections was given to the National Tuberculosis Control Programme before the devolution of the health ministry. After the 18th amendment, vertical programmes were devolved to the provinces and since then a major portion of the building, which was constructed a few years ago, has been lying vacant.

EPI National Manager Dr Zahid Larik said he had heard about the building’s allotment, but he was not consulted. “It’s surprising as vaccine worth billions of rupees is stored there and there is no alternative place for it.”

Officials of the IPC ministry said they were completely unaware about the building’s allotment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2012.