By Gul Hamaad Farooqi
CHITRAL: A Civil Dispensary in Arkrio village has been locked for over 10 years. Locals have been running from pillar to post to make the dispensary functional without success.
Locals said that the 10 years ago the region’s elected representative Saleem Khan, who served as KPK’s Provincial Minister of Population Welfare, had provided funds for a civil dispensary and constructed a building, but it has never become functional since its inception.
Qari Muhammad Daim, Nazim of Village Council Arkrio told our correspondent that the locals have repeatedly requested the District Health Officer Chitral and the district administration to make the dispensary functional, but to no avail.
Shan Bibi, the only unopposed elected woman councillor of Arundu Village Council, said that women of the area are facing many difficulties in terms of treatment and education. She said that there is no female doctor in this entire union council, and that a lady health visitor of the Rural Health Center Arundu has failed to provide services due to lack of monitoring and guidance and many women have died while giving birth due to unavailability of vital services. She said that it is provincial and federal government’s responsibility to provide basic rights to the local population. She threatend that if the situation does not change, the locals will consider migrating to the neighboring region of Afghanistan.
