Poor people must have a peaceful life: Nawaz

Launches first phase of National Health Programme in AJK; says scheme is apolitical; 82,362 families in Muzaffarabad and 79,004 in Kotli to benefit from scheme; annual cover of scheme is up to Rs300,000 and extendable to Rs600,000

MUZAFFARABAD: Launching the first phase of the gigantic National Health Programme for Azad Kashmir at the Mirwaiz Shaheed Medical College here, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said he wished to see poor people live a peaceful life.

Nawaz said his government was determined to provide free of cost treatment to poor patients.  The prime minister, who was in an upbeat mood and was flanked by Maryam Nawaz Sharif, reiterated his resolve to bring the lights back to Karachi by eliminating terrorism and making the country ‘first-rate.’

He said that the National Health Scheme was part of the manifesto of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and everyeffort would be made to provide free health cover to the needy. Nawaz said the scheme would be extended to all parts of the country to benefit the poor, as poverty was one of the reasons behind several diseases.

He said the government gave priority to the welfare of people, with education and health on top of the list.  He said the government was developing infrastructure, trying to overcome the shortage of energy and working hard to eliminate terrorism from the country.

The scheme would initially cover Muzaffarabad and Kotli.  Federal Ministers Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, Saira Afzal Tarrar, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) for Political Affairs Dr. Syed Asif Saeed Kirmani and Chairman Bait-ul-Mal Barrister Abid Waheed Shaikh were also present on the occasion. 

Nawaz appreciated the philanthropists, civil society members and welfare organisations working to provide free of cost or concessional treatment to the poor.  He made it clear that there was no politics in the scheme, as the PPP and PML-N leadership were on one platform to launch it. 

He recalled that the Ittefaq Hospital and Sharif Medical Complex in Lahore were providing free of cost treatment to the poor and his family wasn’t entitled to benefit from the hospitals.  He said 80,000 people belonging to the low income group will benefit from the scheme in Muzaffarabad alone. 

Endorsing the remarks of State Minister Saira Afzal Tarrar, he recalled that Maryam Nawaz had put up tremendous efforts to make the scheme a reality.  He informed the audience on behalf of Maryam Nawaz that the cards issued on Thursday had become immediately valid for free treatment.

He announced Rs100 million as a grant and two buses for the Mirwaiz Medical College Muzaffarabad.  Nawaz Sharif also distributed health cards among the needy people at the function. 

Speaking on the occasion, AJK Minister for Health Sardar Qamar Zaman welcomed the launch of the scheme in the liberated territory.  Azad Kashmir President Sardar Yaqub Khan and Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed were also present at the inaugural function. 

The scheme will benefit 82,362 and 79,004 families of Muzaffarabad and Kotli respectively.  The “Prime Minister’s National Health Programme” was inaugurated by the prime minister in Islamabad on December 31 last year. 

The scheme is designed for poor families, whose daily income is less than Rs200 per day, with free of cost access to secondary as well as priority treatment.  The annual cover of the scheme is up to Rs300,000 extendable to Rs600,000. 

In the first phase, the programme will be implemented in 23 districts of Pakistan.  Muzaffarabad is the second district where the programme is launched to provide in-hospital services to around 82,000 poor beneficiaries. 

Monitoring and evaluation are main pillars for the success of the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme (PMNHP).  A baseline survey has already been completed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir to identify the current “Out of Pocket” (OOP) expenditure of its focused beneficiaries. The survey was conducted by the Health Services Academy with the technical and financial support of the World Health Organization (WHO).