Kashmiri American doctor triggers ‘smoking gun’ on Omar Govt

Charges of corruption leveled on Minister; Nasir refutes, threatens legal action

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 6: World famous angioplasty wizard, Dr Fayaz Shawl, today announced abandonment of his plans to set up a heart center in Kashmir while leveling charges of ‘corruption’ against a state Minister and claiming that Omar Abdullah-led coalition government had denied him permission to raising of a hospital that, according to him, would have made the Valley a major attraction of medical tourism. Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Nasir Aslam Wani, has refuted the allegation and asked Dr Shawl to either tender an apology publicly or be prepared to face a libel suit.

Two hours before returning back to the United States of America alongwith his family, Dr Fayaz Shawl announced the dramatic decision of abandonment of plans to set up a modern hospital here at a hurriedly organized news conference. Omar Abdullah’s government, he said, had denied him permission to lay the hospital by way of ‘creating unnecessary hurdles’ . He said that he had been forced to take the extreme decision during his two-hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at his Gupkar Road residence last evening.

“I told Mr Omar that he had a cancer growing on his government and advised him to cure it before it was too long”, Dr Shawl said while leveling serious allegations of ‘corruption’ on the National Conference leader and Minister of State for Housing & Urban Development, Nasir Aslam Wani. He held Wani responsible for “sabotaging and derailing” his Rs 100 Crore hospital project with “unwarranted hurdles” and suggested that Omar Abdullah’s junior Ministerial colleague was “in league with some influential people” who, according to him, were bent upon failing his plan. He said that these people had been permitted to raise houses and structures around the same site which the Minister had been describing to him as “restricted under master plan”.

“If it’s a restricted site, why doesn’t Mr Nasir Wani explain how Principal Government Medical College Srinagar and an Advocate General had been permitted to build their houses?”, Dr Shawl asked. He claimed that his site, far away from Dal Lake, was situated outside the green belt and the construction of a hospital was by no means a violation of master plan. He said that the land of nearly 40 Kanals, purchased by him for the site of his dream project in the picturesque Zabarvan foothills in his home town three years ago, was neither a forest land nor a wildlife site that could have justified the Minister’s objections.

While releasing his e-mail correspondence with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and MoS Housing & Urban Development, Nasir Aslam Wani, Dr Shawl claimed that Mr Wani had invited him to Kashmir and asked him to hold the “ground breaking ceremony” on June 5th. However, the Minister changed his mind within a few days and began telling him that there were a many hurdles in clearing the hospital project by his Government. He asserted that he never asked for any favour or funding from the state or the central governments and wanted nothing but permission to land use change as the site was a deserted agriculture farm. He claimed to be in possession of a “smoking gun” that, according to him, could shake the state government.

Settled in USA, Dr Shawl has been heading two major hospitals in Maryland and Washington DC and has to his credit the unbeaten distinction of having performed over 20,000 high risk angioplasty procedures in USA and other countries. World’s top political dignitaries, besides a large number of Hollywood and Bollywood filmmakers, are among the patients he has treated. Before resigning as a medical officer posted at Shahdara Sharief and his departure to Europe and USA in 1971, Dr Shawl was born and brought up in Srinagar.

In his prompt reaction, MoS Housing & Urban Development, Nasir Aslam Wani, challenged Dr Shawl to expose his “smoking gun”, tender an unconditional apology or be prepared for a legal action.

“I understand that during the course of a Press Conference here today, Dr. Fayaz Shawl has leveled some serious allegations against my person. The allegations are false, concocted, malicious, baseless and bereft of facts. I challenge Dr. Shawl to expose the smoking gun that he has referred to and substantiate his allegations in this regard”, Wani, according to an official press release said. He added:“ I want to set the record straight. One, the land being referred to by Dr. Shawl is a restricted area under the Master Plan. Second, the State Government has not received any formal proposal from Dr. Shawl. However in the absence of a formal proposal, the Chief Minister offered Dr. Shawl three options:-
a) to take over Kashmir Nursing Home, Gupkar Road.
b) to exchange his land for Custodian land by paying the differential cost where he could built his Medical Centre and 30 - Room Luxury Hotel as mentioned by him.
c) to submit a formal DPR (Detailed Project Report) alongwith an undertaking to treat poor patients who could otherwise not afford treatment after which the State Cabinet would consider amending the Master Plan”.

“Unfortunately, Dr. Shawl rejected all the three offers of the Chief Minister leaving the state government with no choice”, Wani said and indicated to initiate legal action against Dr Shawl. “If Dr. Shawl does not withdraw his allegations and does not tender an unconditional apology, I have instructed my lawyers to file a defamation suit against him”.

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