Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Despite the passage of over three months, construction work on the first nursing university in the capital has not been started after residents refused to vacate the land allocated for the project, Daily Times has learnt.

Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the king of Bahrain, visited Pakistan in March, 2014 and offered to establish a state-of-the-art medical institution as gift from the people of Bahrain. The objective of the project was to uplift the standard of medical education in the country and produce manpower in the field of medical.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) in this regard was signed between the ministries of health and foreign affairs of both countries for the establishment of Hamdard University of Nursing and Associated Medical Sciences in Chak Shehzad.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif laid the foundation stone of the university in January, 2017.

According to the MOU, the university was to be constructed on around 237 kanals of land. However, the allocated land is still under occupation of residents. So far, the locals have refused to vacate the land.

The initial plan, prepared by they Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination (MNHSR&C), suggests that the university will cater to 2,000 students with 500 annual admissions. Hostel/residential facilities will also be provided to 1,000 women students.

Requesting anonymity, an official in the ministry said that it was surprising that an MOU had been signed without arranging land for the project.

“The work for the establishment of the university has been going on since the past three years. Officials of both countries have made several bilateral trips so far,” he said.

“The last delegation’s visit to Bahrain was in October 2016. It was led by Minster Saira Afzal Tarar. These visits were exclusively aimed to discuss key factors of the university’s establishment,” he said.

After signing the MOU, three committees were constituted by the ministry: an oversight committee for construction work; a technical committee for curriculum development; and a legal committee to deal with the legal issues.

According to documents available with Daily Times, the payment for land acquisition was made through a cheque, dated February 13, 2017, amounting to Rs 310 million issued by the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) in favor of Director Accounts Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad.

Sources said that several high-level meetings had also been held to resolve the land acquisition issue, but without any success.

The documents revealed that such a meeting was held on January 13, 2017. It was chaired by MNHSR&C Secretary Muhammad Ayub Sheikh.

It was decided in the meeting that on getting possession of the land, MNHSR&C would secure boundaries of the site with barbed wire. The Public Works Department will also be engaged to deal with cost-related matters for the plan.

Despite all the efforts, no breakthrough has been achieved. Sources said that the Bahrain government had also issued several reminders to the Pakistani government for initiating the construction work on the project. “However, the authorities have not paid any heed in his regard,” sources said.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official of the ministry said that land issue of the university had “almost been resolved”.