Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to inaugurate the Pak-China Friendship Hospital in Islamabad on October 27, bringing a 250-bed facility in Chak Shahzad back into service more than five years after it was built in a hurry to treat COVID-19 patients. The hospital, raised during the first wave of the pandemic, will now work as a general hospital for residents of the area rather than returning to its old role as an isolation centre alone.
The new name was settled on the prime minister’s directions. The Ministry of National Health Services and the Isolation Hospital and Infectious Treatment Centre had first agreed to call it Margalla Hospital, but that decision was set aside. Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal explained that the change recognises China’s part in creating the facility, saying that the hospital was built with Chinese assistance and that the prime minister had directed it should be named Pak-China Friendship Hospital.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
On the question of how the hospital will run, the health ministry and the treatment centre have decided that it will function as a general hospital, while its isolation wing will be operated under a public-private partnership. The ministry had already signed an agreement with the Indus Hospital and Health Network for the management of that isolation facility, a deal that now forms part of the reopening plan.
The building itself dates back to 2020, when the first wave of COVID-19 was sweeping the country. China donated 4 million dollars towards the project, and the Frontier Works Organisation put it up in just 40 days, working alongside the National Disaster Management Authority and the National Institute of Health. The total construction cost was reported at around 980 million rupees, and the facility was opened on July 9, 2020, by the then prime minister Imran Khan. Once the pandemic faded, however, the hospital was shut down as operational troubles mounted, including a shortage of medical staff.
The reopening comes only weeks after plans were announced for a new 167-bed hospital in Islamabad offering free treatment, and it points to a wider effort to add public health capacity in the capital rather than letting pandemic-era buildings fall idle. For people living around Chak Shahzad, the practical test will be whether the hospital opens on time and stays properly staffed, the very problem that closed it last time, and whether the public-private arrangement keeps treatment within reach of ordinary patients. If it clears those hurdles, a building raised in 40 days for an emergency could finally become a lasting part of Islamabad’s health system, and a visible reminder of the partnership with China that paid for it.
