MULTAN: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid Wednesday said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s medical report did not provide sufficient grounds to extend his stay in the United Kingdom.
Talking to reporters, after attending the Syndicate meeting of Nishtar Medical University, the minister said she had phoned to Nawaz Sharif’s personal consultant Dr Adnan on January 13 and asked him to submit a logical report for Nawaz’s stay extension in UK.
The minister said Dr Adnan would submit a detailed medical report with the Pakistani High Commission in London and the High Commission would investigate the report then it would forward the report to the Punjab Home Department and then a Medical Board will make a technical evaluation of the report. The minister said the former prime minister was allowed to travel abroad on humanitarian grounds and now we have seen his pictures of visiting restaurants. If his condition has improved, he must come back to the country,” she said. The minister said that development work on Nishtar phase-II has been started and the government making efforts to provide state of the art facilities of Nero surgery at phase-II. The Punjab government is providing Rs 9.2 billion for Nishtar phase-II consist of 1,000 beds.
She said the government has provided 26,000 jobs since taking over the offices while 10,000 new jobs are opening soon.
The government would have to create at least 35,000 new jobs in health sector at the end of the current year, the minister said. The government has distributed health cards in 36 districts of Punjab while 70, 000 health cards are given to special persons.
The minister said work on Mianwali hospital has been started and the government has started work on three new hospitals while PC-I of the hospitals was in process out of nine hospitals, which the PTI government is committed to establish. The minister said the Punjab government has allocated Rs 32 billion for the procurement of medicines and funds have been released for each hospital. She said the PML-N government started 118 projects and left the projects incomplete, but the PTI government is working to complete those incomplete projects.
The Punjab Health Department has allocated Rs 45 billion budget for development and no hospital and laboratory is going to be privatised, she clarified. Earlier, addressing the 7th Syndicate meeting of the varsity, Dr Yasmin directed the Nishtar Medical University authorities to start special research initiatives on health indictors in south Punjab. She said: “Proper research is the cornerstone of evidence-based policy making mechanism.
The minister said the development indicators in South Punjab need improvement. In order to introduce meaningful development, we need good quality research in under developed areas so that we are able to introduce targeted interventions and bring visible improvement, the minister said. Vice Chancellor Prof Mustafa Kamal Pasha, senior Syndicate members and faculty of the varsity also attended the meeting. The minister approved different agenda items, including hiring of new human resource, working paper for positions till grade 15 and opening of a new bank account.
She visited the site of Nishtar-II project where the development is in full swing. The Nishtar-II project will help reduce burden at the existing facilities.
DERA GHAZI KHAN: The Health minister also visited District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Dera Ghazi Khan and checked duty roster and different sections of the hospital. She directed the hospital staff to improve service delivery. The minister also talked to patients and asked them about the quality of services at the hospital. The CEO Health DG Khan, officials of the district administration and the hospital administration were also present on the occasion.