Pakistan spends Rs683 million on Afghan hospitals

ISLAMABAD: Although Pakistan’s own hospitals still lack proper facilities to cater to healthcare needs of the population, the country spent Rs683 million on construction and repair of hospitals in Afghanistan during the outgoing fiscal year, budget document revealed.

An amount of Rs103 million was sought for construction of 200 beds Jinnah Hospital in Kabul as part of the supplementary demand for grants and appropriations in the federal budget while an additional amount of Rs546 million was separately demanded for “different work” at Jinnah Hospital at Kabul and Naib Aminullah Khan Logari hospital at Logar Afghanistan.

The document revealed that Rs50.2 million was spent on installation and commissioning of medical equipment for three hospitals in Afghanistan while 1000 Afghan students at Rehman Baba Hostel were provided with Rs32.6 million grant.

An amount of Rs1 million was spent on Nishtar Kidney Centre at Jalalabad, Afghanistan during the fiscal year 2015-16. Afghanistan also received Rs51 million from Pakistan for 15 weigh bridges and 30 mobile mixtures as part of project Torkham-Jalalabad Road.

The document revealed that Pakistan spent generously on foreign assistant and an amount of Rs3 billion was spent on foreign assistant over and above the approved budget during outgoing fiscal year.

The country spent Rs50 million on award of 800 scholarships to students from Indian Occupied Kashmir in field of medicine, engineering and information technology. Additionally, a sum of Rs15.1 million was spent to finance 100 scholarships for Bangladeshi students in field of engineering, medical and IT.

Pakistan provided gift of rice worth Rs925 million to Cuba while Niger received rice worth Rs685 million from the country during the last year. The amount was given to Trading Corporation of Pakistan which arranged rice gifts.

The country also provided relief assistance worth Rs186 million for earthquake affectees in Nepal while an amount of Rs48.62 million was spent on assistance of earthquake affectees of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous (GBAO), Tajikistan.

The country also spent Rs162.4 million for donation of rice for drought victim in Niger while flood victims of Myanmar received Rs10.4 million donations from the country. A sum of Rs63.3 million was spent on compensation of Pakistani Hujjaj martyred in Mina during Haj 2015. National Seerat Conference cost the country Rs3 million.