KARACHI               -          Sindh Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday started his visit from COVID-19 Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) at NIPA where he was briefed by Secretary health Zahid Abbasi.

The Chief Minister said that he had already released Rs 1.2 billion to complete the structure of the hospital building and procurement of necessary equipment, said a statement.

He said that the building had two blocks and each block consisted of three story building. The hospital had the capacity of 400 beds. The Block-A had minor works to make it function.

The CM called vice chancellor Down University Dr Saeed Qureshi and handed over the possession of the hospital to him. He directed the VC to make its Block-A with 200-bed functional within in a month.

Murad was told that there was no proper power and water connection to the hospital. He on his mobile phone talked to Chief Executive Officer of K-Electric and directed him to provide proper power connection to the hospital on emergency basis and the paper work for a new connection or PMT would be going on.

He also directed MD water Board Asadullah Khan to provide water connection to the hospital and also ensure water through tankers from Friday morning.

Syed Murad Ali Shah directed Secretary Works & Services Imran Atta Soomro to ensure round the clock presence of the engineer in the hospital building so that its construction could be completed within a month.

Later, CM also visited Dental Hospital of Dow University constructed at Gulistan-i-Jauhar, opposite Karachi University. It was a 50-bed hospital structure. He directed VC Dow University to complete the work on hospital within a month and make it functional for coronavirus patients.

He also directed Secretary Health Zahid Abbasi to provide necessary equipments and staff to the hospital so that it could be made functional. He told them that he would visit the hospital once again most probably next week to review the progress of the work.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by Minister Information Syed Nasir Shah and advisor Law Murtaza Wahab.

Sindh CM visits KU DNA lab

for expediting DNA tests

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah visited Sindh Forensic DNA and Serology Laboratory at Karachi University just to press them to expedite the DNA tests of passengers died in Air bus A-320 crash on May 22.

A statement issued from the CM’s House, the CM said, “The family members of the passengers died in the plane crash are in such a severe pain that they have not only lost their relatives but now they are unable to identify their bodies to perform their funeral. This pain will continue piercing them in their hearts the whole life but we can mitigate it by handing over them the bodies just after identifying them through DNA.”

Briefing the Chief Minister, the Lab in-charge said that out of 97 bodies 50 have been identified and handed over to their heirs. He added that at present 29 bodies were lying in the mortuaries of Edhi and 18 in Chhipa.

The Chief Minister was told that 12 bodies identified through DNA were Ms Yasmeen, Attaullah, Ms. Shehnaz, Ms. Khalida, Khalid Sherdil, Saad Mahmood, Usman and Surya. Three other bodies identified, through DNA, had also been handed over. Two DNA reports were missed/rejected due to the tagging issue.

At this the Chief Minister directed the district administration to resolve the issue and get the bodies identified so that they could be handed over to their relatives.

The Chief Minister appreciated the Lab staff, technicians and the administration for their untiring work and dedication to help the aggrieved families to identify their deceased member died in the plane crash.

PA session to be held

with skeleton staff

A session of the Sindh Assembly will be held on June 03 with minimum staff of the provincial assembly in view of coronavirus.

The decision pertaining to the minimum staff in the session has been made as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus.

PA’s Senior Special Secretary, Special Secretary, Additional Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries and Heads of other sections have been directed to be present with minimum staff.