Karachi: The differences between the Chief Minister of Sindh and the Health Minister intensified over the issue of canceling the tender for the robotic surgery machine.
The differences between the caretaker minister of the provincial health department and the caretaker chief minister of Sindh came to light when the caretaker chief minister of Sindh called an extraordinary meeting of the health department in which the secretary of the department Mansoor Rizvi, director general of health Sindh, director of health Karachi and other important officials were present. Officers were invited to the meeting but caretaker health minister Dr. Saad Niaz boycotted the meeting.
According to the sources, the previous government of Sindh of People’s Party had awarded the contract for the purchase of 8 robotic surgery machines for various hospitals of Sindh including Karachi to an approved company. However, the caretaker health minister canceled the tender for the purchase of these machines in September and stopped the procurement process.
According to the Health Minister, the alleged commission was revealed on a large scale in the machines being purchased, on which an inquiry committee was set up. According to the sources, a robotic surgery machine was also offered as a gift to the Caretaker Health Minister as a bribe, which the Caretaker Health Minister rejected, after which, to highlight the importance and usefulness of the robotic machine, some across the country including Karachi A vigorous campaign was launched by the doctors and tried to convey the impression that the robotic surgery machine is very important for any operation.
According to the sources, seminars and demonstrations were also held in Karachi regarding the robotic surgery machine in various hospitals with the collaboration of experts and an important personality of the province also visited the Sindh Institute of Urology while the Caretaker Health Minister said. That robotic surgery is very expensive and we don’t have technicians and biomedical engineers for it while the cost of operation is very high.
Caretaker Health Minister Dr. Saad Niaz told Express that I boycotted the meeting 10 minutes before it started. He said that I had canceled the contract to order 4 more robotic machines worth more than 4 billion, but the caretaker chief minister says that the purchase of robotic machines is the decision of the previous government, so the caretaker government is the previous elected government. All decisions are bound to be accepted.
He said that none of the hospitals in the city, including the Aga Khan Hospital, have a robotic machine because a surgery on this machine costs 4 to 5 lakh rupees. Why should we order 4 machines worth 4 billion rupees? With this money, the condition of all hospitals in Sindh including Karachi can be improved. The contract for the purchase of the machine has been awarded to a preferred company.
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