MULTAN - Although the Punjab government has not allocated even a single penny for the construction of District Headquarters Hospital in Multan in budget 2012-13, the hopes for the launching of this forgotten project have revived as the provincial government has asked local authorities to send the PC-1 for the project forthwith.

Sources said that the Punjab Government was likely to release over Rs2 billion funds for the construction of 268-bed DHQ Hospital. Earlier, a Japenese NGO JICA was going to provide funds for the construction of this hospital and the PC-1 sent to the government by district administration was also made for the same project.
The project was made a shuttlecock by the Punjab Government. Initially it was a project of the provincial government but then the plan was changed and district administration was asked to launch it. The plan changed again and then JICA was to fund the project but now the provincial government has jumped in again.
It may not be out of place to mention here that a building for the hospital was also constructed but it was turned into a 100-bed Kidney Centre by the government. Different quarters strongly criticized the Punjab Government for not allocating any funds for major health projects of Multan including DHQ Hospital on which the provincial administration has sought PC-1.
Pensioners rally for demands: The pensioners of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) staged a protest demonstration against non-payment of raise to them announced by the government in previous budgets here outside Prime Minister House on Wednesday. Despite sizzling weather, dozens of old pensioners gathered outside the PM House and shouted slogans against PTCL administration for not passing on the benefit to them.
They were also holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands. Talking to the journalists, they said that the government announced raise in 2010-11 and 2011-12 budgets but the PTCL administration did not added the increase to their pension. “If we’re not given last two years’ raise, how shall PTCL admin give us this year’s raise. It’s a sheer injustice,” they lamented. They demanded the government to direct PTCL administration to pay the raise to the pensioners.