Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, on Friday, called for the withdrawal of the federal government’s recent decision to take over three Sindh health facilities, Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC); National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH). He claimed that this notification had created uncertainty and therefore must be withdrawn in the larger interest of the provision of health services by the aforementioned institutions. The CM was presiding over a meeting held here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho; Advisor to CM Murtaza Wahab; Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah; CM’s Principal Secretary Sajid Jamal Abro; Finance Secretary Najam Shah; Special Secretary (Health) Asghar Memon; NICVD Executive Director Dr Nadeem Qamar; JPMC Executive Director Seemi Jamali; NICH Director Dr Jamal Raza; Special Secretary (Health) Dr Dabeer and other officers. CM Shah added that the federal government had issued a notification to take over the administrative control of NICVD, JPMC and NICH. “This decision has created a panic like situation and uncertainty which is bound to affect the performance of these best institutes,” he said and added that the Ministry of National Health Services should have held preparatory meetings with the Sindh government to work out modalities, as directed by the Supreme Court. However, no such meeting was held, he lamented. Shah maintained, “I am surprised that no such intimation of taking over the health facilities had been communicated to the hospitals’ administration.” CM Shah had noted that since the Sindh government had filed a review petition in the SC, and the federal government should have waited till the final verdict of the court. “Abruptly, they [fed govt] issued a notification and created uncertainty,” he stated. The chief minister directed Sindh Advocate General to file an urgent application in the SC for hearing of a review petition. He maintained, “Our various important projects are going on in all the three health facilities and various others are in the pipeline; therefore, they also wanted to settle the issue so that provincial government could move forward accordingly.” CM Shah noted that with hard work and dedication, the provincial government had made those three health facilities state-of-the-art institutions with significant budgetary allocations and expansion. He added that the provincial government had established eight NICVD satellites centres in different districts. NICH satellites had also been planned to establish in other districts while JPMC emergency and CyberKnife projects had started functioning. He concluded, “We feel that the provincial government can run these institutions in the best way because we are very close to them; therefore, the provincial government should be allowed to flourish them further under its administrative control.”