Daily Times

The Isra University Bachao Committee (IUBC) on Thursday staged a sit-in demonstration in front of the Isra University Welfare Hospital against the Kazi Brothers for dominating the university’s authoritative staff and converting the hospital into a ‘private enterprise’ by operating it on their own terms.

Earlier, various political parties and organisations including Sindh United Party (SUP) and Sindh National Tehreek (SNT) joined the demonstration and marched from Hatri bypass to the front gate of the Isra University while chanting full-throat slogans against the Kazi brothers for turning the university, the institute which was established in 1986 with a charitable trust to run the hospital, into their potential source of income by charging the patients a hefty fee.

IUBC representatives including Ashraf Noonari, SUP’s Abdul Aziz Phul, SNT’s Lala Qurban Sodhro, Mir Allahdad Talpur, Dr Uzma Jokhyo, Akhtar Sindhi and others claimed that the Kazi brothers have made their fortune by building assets worth billions of rupees from charity and Zakat fund.

“The Kazi Brothers have founded Tibra College, Al-Tibri Medical College and Hospital in Karachi, and Al-Nafees Medical College in Islamabad, with an affiliation of the Isra University Hospital. They also established an engineering college in Tando Adam Khan and the Isra Higher Secondary School in Qasimabad. They have also constructed Isra Housing Scheme in Kandiaro, Sindh,” they revealed.

“Abdul Ghani Kazi has been occupying a position of administrator, Ghulam Qadir has been holding the office of vice-chancellor and their three sons including Waliullah Kazi, Sajjad Kazi and Hamd Kazi have dominated the hospital staff,” they added.

Noonari said that the hospital has become one of the most costly hospitals in Sindh, where treatment of poor patients has become financially impossible.

He further asserted that low-grade employees and nurses were not regularised even after 10 years of their services, and they were sacked whenever they had demanded to be get regularised by the administration.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz Phul said that that the current management of the Isra University Hospital has violated rules and regulations of the Pakistan Medical and Dental council (PMDC), by charging a huge amount of admission fee from the students.

“PMDC has allotted 100 MBBS and 50 BDS seats with the annual fee of Rs 675,000, but the management has been charging Rs 14,00,000 to regular students while Rs 18,00,000 to students on self-finance admissions without any quota system of self-financing,” he said.

“Even though they are making a huge amount of money, still the helping staff and other employees get paid less than what they deserve,” he added. Later, the IUBC appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Director of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate into the ongoing malpractices, irregularities and corruption of billions of rupees by the Kazi brothers, and take a stern action against them according to the Constitution of Pakistan.

They warned that if their demands were not addressed, they would stage another sit-in after Ashura processions.

Published in Daily Times, September 14^th 2018.