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KABUL: A Kabul-based $24 million hospital funded by Pakistan was officially handed over to Afghan authorities on Saturday, according to a statement issued by the foreign office.
Afghan Vice President Sarwar Danish, Afghan Minister of Public Health Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz and Pakistani Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Khan, jointly inaugurated the “200-bed state-of-the-art” hospital in a ceremony held in Kabul, the foreign office said.
Named ‘Jinnah Hospital’ to honor Pakistan’s founder, the hospital will focus on neurosurgery for the time being and in the future will also conduct kidney transplants, Waheed Mayar, spokesman of the Afghan public health ministry told Arab News.
Mayar said the new facility will bring much-needed relief to Afghans who spend over $300 million dollars annually on medical bills and often needed to travel to India, Pakistan and Iran due to the state of Afghanistan’s own hospitals.
According to the press release, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zahid Nasrullah Khan, said that the Jinnah Hospital was a “flagship project” of the nation’s $1 billion development assistance to Afghanistan. It is the second of three medical facilities built by Islamabad in Afghanistan with one kidney center in Jalalabad already complete and another 100-bed facility under-construction in Logar, in eastern Afghanistan.