Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday accused the federal government of seeking control over provincial education and population welfare rights.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of a new Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) unit in Karachi, the PPP chairman said: “There are talks that Islamabad wants to keep the rights of education and population welfare to itself. It will be wrong.”
Reaction would come if attempts are made to undermine Sindh’s rights, he added.
Lauding the healthcare facilities in Sindh, the PPP leader said that there was a significant difference in the condition of hospitals before and after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, which was passed during the PPP-led federal government in 2010.
He maintained that powers transferred from the Centre to provinces through the constitutional tweak and vowed to defend their rights.
The PPP chairman said that the Centre had tried to “snatch” the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) from the provincial government during the PTI-led government. The former foreign minister said that the provincial government laid a network of SIUTs and other hospitals at international standards.
He added that a PPP Punjab chapter ticket holder had contacted him and the Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, requesting that the free healthcare facilities available in Sindh be extended to their areas as well.
The PPP leader also pointed out issues in the health card programme recently introduced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The KP government has put the health budget in the health card,” he said and raised questions over the model of the health programme scheme.
He noted that KP’s health system is seeing a shift of government funds towards private hospitals.
Bialwal challenged the federal and KP governments to present their 15-year population planning record, adding that he is ready to show Sindh’s performance in population planning during the same period.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, the driving force behind SIUT Dr Adeeb Rizvi, renowned economist Shabbar Zaidi, and a large number of administrative and medical staff, dignitaries, and civil society members.
The PPP chairman, last week, had warned that those who wanted to undo the 18th Amendment or the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award were “playing with fire.”
“If there is any power in any amendment after the 1973 Constitution, it is in the 18th Amendment,” he had added.