Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said on Thursday that the increase in health budget from Rs 18 billion to Rs 65 billion showed that health was the top priority of the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Addressing a press conference regarding health reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran Khan said that the PTI wanted to reform the health sector.

“Whenever the provincial government tries to take steps towards health reforms, people who oppose the change get stay orders from courts. This is one of the biggest hurdles in the path of change,” the PTI chief said.

Imran Khan claimed that it was for the first time in the history of the province and the country that reforms had been introduced in the health sector. “As many as 3,500 doctors have been recruited in the province for tertiary care hospitals, taking the total strength of doctors to 6,500. Now 95 percent doctors are available for work in territory care hospitals in KP,” he said.

The PTI chairman added that the Sehat Insaf Card initiative was another revolutionary step of the PTI government in the province. “The number of beneficiaries has increased from 1.8 million families to 2.4 million families. The project is on its way to covering 70 percent of population in KP,” he said.

“Around Rs 70 million has so far been spent on providing free treatment to the poor people of KP in the Sehat Insaf Card initiative during the first six months of the current year,” Imran Khan said.

To a question regarding no visible change in services at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar in the last four years, Imran Khan said that patience was required to get good results.

Imran Khan also appreciated the work of Dr Nowsherawan Burki, who also happens to be a cousin of Imran Khan. The PTI chief added that Dr Burki was working day and night without any salary or any other benefits to improve the health sector of KP. “Twelve foreign doctors have been recruited at the LRH thanks to Dr Burki’s efforts. Soon a day will come when public sector hospitals are able to compete with private hospitals in the province,” he said.

Criticising Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan said that the India would never want Nawaz Sharif step down from because the Sharif family was protecting Indian interests in Pakistan. “Indians are worrying that their friend Nawaz Sharif may have to go,” he said.

“The time has come for PM Nawaz Sharif to resign. He was not held accountable for many decades. He invested billions of rupees in foreign countries instead of Pakistan,” Khan said. “In democracies around the world, governance is backed with moral authority. Democratic governments are concerned with future,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th , 2017.