— Bahawalpur division gets universal health coverage
BAHAWALPUR: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said the government of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party was committed to mitigating the deprivation of the people of southern Punjab by ensuring their due share in the development budget and employment opportunities.
Addressing the launch event of the Naya Pakistan Qaumi Sehat Card, a universal health insurance initiative for Punjab, in Bahawalpur, he said the people of the south would be given their right of access to education, healthcare and development in accordance with the percentage of their population.
The health card, providing Rs1 million in medical coverage per household annually, will benefit around 10.5 million people belonging to the districts of Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar.
The prime minister termed the launch of the healthcare facility as a “landmark step” to accommodate the people bearing the burden of expensive medical treatment.
He said the facility of health coverage was available in a few countries across the world where the government fully covered the medical expenses.
In Pakistan, he said, the philosophy behind the health card was in line with the goals of a socio-welfare state of Medina, adding it would prove a phenomenal step in the improvement of healthcare services.
Khan said the card was a defining moment in encouraging the private sector to join the medical network especially in rural areas and creating an environment of competition for the public hospitals to improve their services.
He said an amount of over Rs400 billion would be spent on health insurance programmes to meet the demands of the growing population.
He said the programme would address the problems including the unavailability of doctors and paramedic staff at hospitals, especially in rural areas.
The prime minister announced that he would soon visit Bahawalpur in near future regarding the further administrative measures concerning South Punjab Secretariat.
Khan said the government was taking steps to improve economic stability and mentioned The Economist and Bloomberg ranked Pakistan among the top three countries that had effectively sustained economically during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He dismissed the “unreasonable” criticism of media that called the government “inefficient”, and said economic growth of 5.37 percent despite the pandemic situation could absolutely not be dismissed as inefficiency.
Instead, he pointed out the international media, including BBC, reported about the “stories of massive corruption” committed by the leaders of two previous governments of PML-N and PPP.
He said Pakistan suffered immensely during these two tenures just like that “even a factory can become bankrupt if a dacoit is appointed at the top”.
The prime minister said the government was committed to bringing the corrupt answerable before the law and recovering the nation’s looted money.
Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said the launch of a healthcare project in the Bahawalpur division will raise the number of people and households in the national health programme in Punjab by 65 percent.
He said over 100 hospitals had been empanelled in three districts where the patients would be able to avail medical treatment from the public and private hospitals.
By March, he said, the programme would be expanded to all 36 districts of Punjab benefiting around 110 million, adding the provincial government was contributing billions for the health coverage, especially for cancer patients.
Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtiar said Bahawalpur was the first division in South Punjab to get the facility of health insurance from the Rs400 billion mega programme of federal and provincial governments.
He said several revolutionary projects including Ehsaas socio-welfare programme was in line with the government’s vision of facilitating the common man and urged the local public representatives to guide the public to benefit from the initiative.
Prime Minister Khan flanked by Chief Minister Buzdar and Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid launched the programme by distributing health cards among the locals of the Bahawalpur division.
The programme has already been launched for the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Islamabad, Tharparkar, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
