Regardless of whether the government’s decision to issue health cards is really one of the first steps towards making Pakistan an Islamic welfare state, as the prime minister claims, it still stands out as a landmark initiative; especially considering the state of the economy. But the PM was very right to lament that Pakistan’s doctor-population ratio was one of the worst in the world. Surely it’s very strange that the country has a very high unemployment rate among educated professionals, and a very large number of them are doctors, yet at the same time there aren’t enough qualified doctors to fill all the hospitals adequately. There was also more than a grain of truth in the claim that successive Pakistani governments are responsible for the overall breakdown of the health sector because they never gave it the attention or the money it needed to grow. Yet instead of going on and on about how their politics was detrimental to the progress of the country, and why they should never be allowed back, the PM’s time would have been better spent elaborating how his government’s approach is different and in which ways it is better. The health card is a great step forward, but it will not solve the doctor-hospital problem that he was talking about. This problem will not go away in a hurry, no doubt, but at some point the first steps will have to be taken. Right now the best Pakistani doctors are not working and serving in Pakistan only because they find better jobs, better remuneration, far better perks and better lives in other countries. And these issues will not even begin to be solved by just pointing the finger at parties now in opposition. The main problems include substandard education and training facilities, lack of top notch teachers, corruption and favouritism in the process of hiring in government institutions, and a completely broken down salary and wage structure in most state-run hospitals. Health cards, too, will serve the people much better when there are more and better doctors and hospitals. *