SIALKOT - The project of establishment of a well-equipped burn unit at the DHQ Hospital Sialkot was in the doldrums, as the Sialkot Finance Department has refused to provide the required funds of Rs20 million to the Health Department.
About seven  years ago, then Sialkot district nazim Mian Naeem Javaid had laid the foundation stone of the project to provide advanced medical and health facilities for burnt patients at the local level. But there is no development in the project.
When contacted, the Sialkot Health Department officials said that the then district government did not sanctioned the funds and remained unable to get PC-1 for early establishment of the project.
 He said that although this project was in the larger interest of the people, but the present district government had not yet undertaken it.
There is no burn unit for 3.4 million population of Sialkot district and burnt patients have to go to Gujranwala, Lahore and Islamabad for their medical treatment.
The former Sialkot district nazim also failed to ensure implementation of the project. PML-N Central Leader and MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Manshaullah Butt, the special assistant to Punjab CM, and MPA Ikhlaq Ahmed also allegedly gave no little weight for the early release of the needed funds for the purpose.
The people visiting the Government Allama Iqbal Memorial DHQ Hospital including Mehbub Alam, Zahid Jehangir , Abdul Majeed Butt, Zaheer Iqbal, Malik Allah Dad and Arif Mehmood Sheikh expressed astonishment why the project was being ignored.