New provinces: Bilawal calls for a ‘full stop’ to conversations
KARACHI: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inaugurated the restored historic Spencer Eye Hospital in Lyari, along with free treatment facilities run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
The initiative reflects the PPP-led KMC’s commitment to public service and marks an important step toward improving public healthcare in the metropolis. With the hospital’s restoration, citizens of Lyari and across Karachi will be able to access free treatment for eye diseases.
According to the press release issued by the Media Cell Bilawal House, the PPP Chairman visited Dr Kaikhusro Nanabhoy Spencer’s Eye Hospital in Lyari Town and inaugurated the modern treatment facilities. Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab, provincial ministers, members of the assembly, local government representatives, party office-bearers, prominent social figures and hospital administration officials were also present.
Founded before the creation of Pakistan by the Parsi ophthalmologist Dr. K. N. Spencer, the hospital was restored and reopened on April 6, 2026 by Mayor Murtaza Wahab of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. It now provides free eye examinations and treatment through an OPD serving roughly 4,000 patients every day.
Speaking to the media after the visit, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed satisfaction over the hospital’s restoration and the provision of modern facilities, and praised the development work being done by KMC under the current administration. He also advised citizens to take advantage of the free eye care available at this old Karachi hospital.
The PPP Chairman said it is the duty of the government and politicians to work on solving people’s problems instead of spreading the politics of hatred and division. He said inflation, poverty and unemployment are at their peak and people are facing economic hardship. In such difficult times, he added, the Sindh government and KMC are trying to take steps to ease the economic burden on the public as much as possible. Health, he said, is a sector that touches every citizen, and poor citizens sometimes face great difficulty because treatment is expensive. PPP governments, he said, have always tried to ensure that poverty or lack of money never stands in the way of any citizen’s treatment.
Responding to a journalist’s question, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said long, unannounced power outages and inflated bills are a serious problem across the country, including Lyari and Karachi, and are becoming especially acute in Karachi. He said: “When the Mayor told me this hospital was converted to solar because of load-shedding, I was thinking how I wish we could solarize all of Lyari, at the very least, so that people here could get electricity at a fair or low price. Projects of this kind are underway.”
He said the Sindh government is trying to provide solar energy facilities to Benazir Income Support Programme beneficiaries, so that they do not have to face expensive bills or load-shedding. He added that the PPP and its elected representatives will raise their voice before the government for relief to the local population from the power crisis.
Asked about the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment, the Chairman said the PPP’s clear position has come out repeatedly, and that Sindh’s position has also been expressed in the provincial assembly for the seventh or eighth time. “So we should now put a full stop to this conversation as well. As far as the question of Sindh is concerned, the people here and their elected representatives have given their verdict, and only the people here can decide the fate of this province. No one else can decide the fate of this province or this city. So I think we should now close this topic, because the people themselves have closed it.”
Asked about the federal government’s continued neglect of Karachi in development projects, he said the federal government should absolutely pay attention to Karachi. “All of us should. Karachi is the economic hub of this country, and it is perhaps the only city in the country whose dynamics are such that if the federation, the province, the provincial government, the mayoral system and all the other institutions in this city work together, the people can truly be served.” He said that federal government representatives, or those who show interest in Karachi, promote the politics of hatred and division among the people here instead of working, and perhaps they do so because they know that despite holding such important federal offices, they have done nothing for Karachi. “Those who have no work to show the people of Karachi want to engage them in the politics of hatred and division, so that people do not ask them what they have done for the city.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026