Up for grabs: Maternity centre for rent

The facility has been unclaimed by the health department for nearly seven years.

SHABQADAR:

Ranked as one of the most dangerous places to be born in Asia, thousands of women and children die every year in Pakistan due to a lack of basic health facilities such as maternity homes.

The ratio of infant mortality is invariably higher in rural areas instead of cities. Many projects to tackle the issue have been launched and construction initiated, but most have been abandoned halfway.



Nusrat Zia Maternity Health Centre in Charsadda is one such project initiated by the former Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). However, the maternity home is yet to be handed over to the K-P Department of Health which has not displayed any interest in taking over the facility. Interestingly, instead of fulfilling its actual purpose, the building has been taken up by two families on rent.

Atta Muhammad Khan, a resident informed The Express Tribune that a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl MNA from the area, Wilayat Shah, had established the centre during the MMA government. The building, which has a doctor’s residence and seven maternity rooms, was completed in 2007 and before it could be handed over to the health department, the MMA’s tenure ended and the building was left abandoned after millions had been spent.

An inhabitant of this facility, Taj Muhammad, is an imam in the village. Very reluctantly, he informed The Express Tribune he had been residing in the hospital for the past three years. Taj says he was initially supposed to pay rent to land owner Malik Wahab Gul but Wahab refused to take money from him because of his position at the mosque.

The second tenant is a labourer who resides in the doctor’s quarters. Islam Gul says he has been around for two years and pays Rs2,000 per month to Wahab as rent.

“If the centre is really needed in the area, I will willingly move out and find another place when the government decides to take over the building,” said Gul. “Although, I do not think the health department is interested in this place anymore.”

When contacted, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Muhammad Arif confirmed the building had not been handed over to Charsadda Executive District Officer (Health) Dr Muhammad Nawaz. Arif claims authorities have reservations over the building’s construction but he is taking up the issue with the relevant department. The MPA said there were several other projects in the locality that had been left incomplete by past governments.

Dr Nawaz said he is not aware why the maternity centre has not been handed over to the health department but fathomed it was due to the project’s incompletion. Nawaz added the project may not be feasible as there are other health facilities nearby such as the Battagram Rural Health Centre and Shabqadar Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2014.