Karachi facing shortage of public health facilities, minister tells PA

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Thursday that it was beyond the capacity of the provincial government to establish a cardiac treatment facility in every district of the province.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho stated this while taking part in the ongoing pre-budget discussion in the House that continued for the fourth consecutive day, letting MPAs on treasury and opposition benches to narrate developmental and civic issues of their respective constituencies.

The health minister, in her remarks, referred to a repeated demand by concerned legislators in the House that a cardiac care facility be built in every district of Sindh. She informed the House that the provincial government could not establish extensions of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) or Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in every district.

She also conceded that there was a shortage of public health facilities in Karachi. Dr Azra said urban health centres would be set up in Karachi. She added that the government-run hospitals at the taluka level were being upgraded gradually.

She also informed the House that sheds would be built at the NICVD in Karachi to ensure proper shelter for the attendants accompanying the patients. Sindh Planning & Development Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said 4,644 uplift schemes were being completed in the province expeditiously, while 1,200 development works would be completed soon.

He informed the House that the government had released all the funds for 1,777 development works to ensure their timely completion. He said the Sindh chief minister and his cabinet members had been serving the people of the province in the best possible manner as per the vision of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The planning and development minister disclosed that Sindh had received most of the funding provided by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for uplift works in Pakistan. He claimed that transparency and standards of the development works in Sindh had been internationally recognised.

Nasir, who also holds the portfolio of the Sindh energy department, said the Sindh government had started distribution of 200,000 solar home systems to beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme. He said that more solar home systems would be distributed in the next phases to energise off-grid homes in the province.

PPP MPA Muhammad Yousuf said he represented the locality of Lyari in Karachi from where the late Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had earlier contested general elections.

He urged the government to speedily resolve the deepening electricity and water crisis in Lyari that had been causing serious problems for its residents. Opposition lawmakers from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who took part in the debate called for the Sindh government to resolve the water crisis in their respective constituencies and empower the local governments to resolve basic civic and municipal issues of the people. They also demanded that the Sindh government complete the Safe City Project to ensure law and order in Karachi. The pre-budget discussion will continue today (Friday).