Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held the groundbreaking ceremony of Jinnah Medical Complex in Islamabad on Sunday, aimed at providing state-of-the-art free healthcare facilities to deserving patients from across the country.

“The complex is going to be one of the region’s best medical centres where the deserving people would get 100% free medical treatment,” he said at the ceremony. “This is the gift of the coalition government not only for the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad but for the people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan as well.”

Once completed, the premier said the medical complex would offer the world’s “best healthcare facilities” with various sections of diseases related to heart, kidneys, lungs, cancer and others. A modern first aid emergency section would also be established at the hospital with a facility of air ambulance service for patients belonging to hard areas, he added.

Nursing schools and laboratories would also be established in the hospital and the deserving patients would avail 100% lab tests facility, PM Shehbaz said.

The prime minister said that it was the same model envisioned by PML-N President Nawaz Sharif to provide free medical facilities only to the poor and on-payment facilities to the well-off people at the same place.

He specifically thanked HBL Chairman Sultan Ali Allana and Prince Rahim Aga Khan for providing technical consultancy support free of cost for the project. He paid tribute to the decades-long services of the Aga Khan Foundation for the country.

PM Shehbaz directed the authorities concerned to complete the project in one year. “Although one year is a challenging deadline for a huge project with determination and hard work, it was quite possible, he said and called for continuing project work round the clock to meet the deadline.

He assured that there would be no funding problems from the government side. PM Shehbaz also expressed his gratitude to Islamabad Chief Commissioner Ali Randhawa for providing land for the project.

As regards compensation to the land affected people, the prime minister directed officials to provide a one-window facility to the affected people to resolve their problems without any delay.