MULTAN
Development adviser to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Muhammad Sajjad Mughal has said that the USAID is ready to collaborate with private sector for installing power plants in Industrial estates. He declared this while talking to the members of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry here on Saturday. The USAID delegation called on the President of MCCI Khawaja Muhammad Usman and other senior members.
Briefing the MCCI members, Mughal revealed that the USAID had allocated Rs2,500 to 3,000 million for public-private power generation projects. He said that USAID would help in attaining licence for power plant and also provide financial as well as technical assistance. He said that United states was taking all out steps to steer Pakistan out of energy crisis. USAID, is supporting the rehabilitation of thermal plants at Muzaffargarh and Guddu, as well as the Tarbela hydro-plant.
USAID Project Director on Dairy farming  Jacob Mozer said that USAID was also assisting in dairy farming and we would provide financial as well as technical assistance if private sector. He said that USAID took an initiative that will help 45,000 Pakistani farmers in the fruit, vegetable, dairy, and livestock sectors to increase their profits by imparting them 'specialised training' in improving their products and sales. Pakistan's fruit, vegetable, dairy, and meat farmers have great potential, but many small agriculture-based businesses lacked the tools to deliver the quality, variety, and quantity of goods that local and international markets demand. Training and modernisation supported by USAID will enable small farmers to deliver higher quality products and increase their profits. The meeting was also attended by Ex-President of MCCI Muhammad Khan Saddozai, Syed Iftikhar Ali Shah vice President, Mian Iqbal Hassan, Khawaja Muhammad Azam, Maj (r) Tariq Khan, Mah-Rukh Rashid and Dr Humaira Iqbal.
Punjab okays increase in number of beds in Nishtar: The Punjab Government has approved a proposal for increasing the number of beds to 1,500 from existing 1,103 in Nishtar Hospital Multan. This was disclosed by Kh Jalaluddin Roomi, Chairman of Nishtar Hospital Board of Management, while addressing the participants of a fundraising function held here in the hospital here the other night. He hoped that besides increase in the funds for the purchase of medicines, hundreds of new jobs for doctors and paramedical staff would be created in the hospital. He said that the philanthropists had committed over Rs50 million.
Speaking on the occasion, Nishtar Hospital and Medical College principal Dr Sami Akhtar said that the patients were faced with multiple problems because of lack of resources. He added that over one million patients were examined at Nishtar Outdoor out of which 337,000 were admitted while the surgeries of 73,000 were done. He said that the hospital administration could offer good healthcare because of shortage of resources, asking the local philanthropists and international donors to donate funds for the hospitals.
Speaking on the occasion, District Coordination Officer Zahid Saleem Gondal announced donating his one month salary for the hospital. He told the participants of the function that the Punjab government had approved Multan Institute of Cardiology extension project and work would start on it by the end of current month. He assured local philanthropists and industrialists that the district administration will allocate land for construction of 400-bed hospital if they donated funds for this project.
He asked the industrialists to come up with construction plan and he will issue order for allocation of land.
Chairman of Nishtar Hospital Board of Management Kh Jalaluddin Roomi had announced during the fundraising function that the local industrialist had a desire to construct a 400-bed hospital if the government allocated land for this project. The DCO responded to his desire and announced to allocate land.