Senior PPP leader joins doctors' protest in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD -- The political storm stirred by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's challenge to the federal government, to name one healthcare facility it had built so far that could match those established by PPP, went up a notch when the party's provincial leader joined doctors' protest outside Red Crescent cardiology hospital on Friday.

PPP Sindh information secretary Aajiz Dhamrah told media persons after participating in the protest against closure of the cardiology hospital in Latifabad that Shahbaz Gill, special assistant to prime minister, visited an abandoned health facility in Jacobabad and spread its video to try to paint a negative picture of Sindh's health infrastructure. But the same Gill had no qualms about closure of this hospital at the behest of his party's governor, he said.

He said the closure of cardiology hospital had deprived patients of Hyderabad city and its surrounding areas of a great facility near their homes. The Sindh governor, who was head of the Red Crescent Sindh's committee and associated with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, had dissolved the committee comprising notables of Hyderabad and entrusted the job to some people from Karachi.

The new committee members hardly visited Hyderabad, hence they had little concern over the hospital's closure for over 25 days, he said.

He said that PPP legislators would raise the issue in Sindh Assembly on Monday and hit out at the governor for visiting Ehsaas support centres in violation of SOPs and 'befooling' the deserving people.

He said that governor had plenty of time for doing politics but he hardly cared about welfare of masses. The closure of the cardiac hospital was a vindictive step against people of Hyderabad.

He urged the governor to immediately reopen the hospital after forming a committee...