Daily Times

The incumbent government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presented the largest development budget in the history of Punjab and all-out efforts were being made to provide relief to the people, said Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) on Information and Special Initiatives and the Punjab government’s spokesperson, Hasaan Khawar here on Saturday.

Talking to media persons here at Commissioner Office he felicitated the residents of Rawalpindi division for having the world glass health insurance facility and getting the modern healthcare facilities under ‘Naya Pak Sehet Card scheme.’

He informed that nearly three million families of Rawalpindi division were eligible to get healthcare facilities from this service. Nearly 56 hospitals had been paneled, he added.

Khawar said the ‘Naya Pakistan Health Card was a hallmark initiative of the PTI government that had removed the difference between the poor and rich in the health sector. “Now every citizen irrespective of his financial status could avail healthcare facilities at the same hospital,” he remarked. Hassaan Khawar said it is the biggest health insurance program being rolled out in South Asia.

He further revealed that as many as 22 million families had been registered across Punjab under the Naya Pakistan National Health Card (NPNHC) programme which had been started with an estimated cost of Rs400 billion. So far around 64,000 hospital beds had been enlisted for the schemes in 593 hospitals.

It is one of its kind social welfare program in the world. PM Imran Khan has fulfilled its promise by providing the same healthcare facilities to rich and poor and proved that better distribution of resources could produce wonders, he added.

The Special Assistant to the Punjab CM said the entire Pakistan was availing the facility but people of Sindh were deprived of it due to the arrogance of the PPP’s provincial government. He stressed that the PPP leadership should remove obstacles in this regard and let the health card be issued in Sindh for the benefit of the people. Punjab CM’s assistant urged the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government to rise above political point-scoring and take steps for the welfare and development of people by following other provinces of Pakistan.

The purpose of the health card is to serve the people without any discrimination, Hassan Khawar said. The SACM informed, “We are registering hospitals from all over the country so that the people of Punjab province could be provided the healthcare facilities even in other provinces including Sindh like the facility being provided in private hospital of Punjab.”He said that the model was adopted in worldwide and the PTI government tried to implement it in more efficient and effective manner.

He informed that nearly Rs 350 billion development projects were underway in Rawalpindi division. The Punjab government had allocated record development budget which is historic. Annual Development Program of the province is nearly Rs 650 billion and with Public Sector Development Program projects it reaches at Rs 740 billion, he added.

Long-awaited Rawalpindi Ring Road project which was conceived long years ago, would be kicked off soon as the government was committed to launch the project, he said adding, bottlenecks were also being removed to start the project.

All-out efforts were also being made to complete land acquisition task so that Nullah Lai and Flood Channel project could be kicked off. 128 km long road from Lilla Interchange to Jhelum would also be completed under PSDP. It would be an economic corridor to open economy of the area. This project would change fate of the area and the road would open new avenues for the development of the areas, he added.

Jalalpur Canal, a mega project worth Rs 32 billion would irrigate over175,000 acres agricultural land, he informed.

Health and education sectors were especially being focused by the Punjab government and several projects were launched. Rawalpindi Institute of Urology was near completion, he said adding, ground breaking of 200 bed Mother and Child hospital had been performed in Attock and the project would be completed swiftly.

The Universities of Chakwal and Kohsar were also being completed by the government. Solid steps were being taken to provide more facilities in Murree, he said adding, new tourist destinations could not be developed in the past but, the PTI government was focusing to identify and develop new tourist destinations in different areas of the province.

Kotli Sattian would be made an attractive tourist destination, he said and informed that the tourist highway which would connect three tehsil including Kotli Sattian, Kalar Syedan and Murree would be completed to promote tourism in the region.

Talking about the case of Shahbaz Sharif family he said that it was an open and shut case as solid evidences were collected. Bank statements were the proof that four billion rupees were in the bank account of Maqsood peon who was their employee.

He lashed out at Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif for using negative tactics to delay his indictment in money laundering case. He asked Shehbaz to face his trials instead of seeking adjournments. “If Shehbaz did not commit a single rupee corruption, why was he using delaying tactics to stop his indictment in money-laundering case,” he added.

He said Rs16 billion were deposited in the accounts of 14 employees of Ramzan Sugar Mills whereas some 17,000 transactions were made into the accounts, he added. He said billions of rupees were detected in the account of Maqsood peon, who was an employee of Ramzan Sugar Mills.