‘Sindh, KP opposing Centre’s plan to extend PM health programme to all provinces’

Dr Musadik Malik, spokesman for PM Nawaz Sharif, urges provinces to come up
with their own plans if they are against Centre’s intervention

Karachi 

Castigating the Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments for not letting the federal government implement the Prime Minister’s National Health Programme, Dr Musadik Malik, spokesman for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said these provincial governments could either come up with an exclusive healthcare program for their respective provinces, or should at least have the courtesy to let the federal government do the job for them. 

Speaking on Thursday at the launch of the Indus Hospital’s Umeed Hai Zindagi Foundation (UHZF) – which aims at providing a diagnosis for hepatitis, its treatment as well as a prevention program – Dr Malik stated that since the adoption of the 18th amendment, healthcare primarily became a provincial subject, but was also an additional responsibility of the federal government.

“The Centre has managed to come up with a system where people, who hardly earn Rs200 in a day could enjoy quality healthcare at private hospitals such as the Aga Khan Hospital, in Karachi, and Shifa hospital, in Islamabad,” Dr Malik stated.

“Our healthcare programme has initially been launched in Islamabad, Muzaffarabad and Quetta, and now we are extending it to 21 districts across Pakistan. We have selected four districts in Sindh – Sanghar, Badin, Shikarpur and Shaheed Benazirabad – but are still awaiting the provincial government’s consent to proceed with our plan,” he added.

Addressing the matter at hand – hepatitis prevention – the PM’s spokesperson conceded that it was a massively prevalent problem, and that the state neither knows the total number of people infected with hepatitis nor the rate at which it was annually spreading.

Comparing the spread of hepatitis in Pakistan with the HIV/Aids epidemic that broke out in Africa in the 1980s to 1990s, he added that if not controlled at this stage, the disease had the potential to wipe out the entire population.

“Credible and concrete data collection would have to be the first step in the fight against hepatitis in Pakistan.”

The spokesman further observed that around 10 million people were affected by the virus in Pakistan, and it was not just the individuals who were suffering but a lack of clinical and economic facilities made their families suffer with them.

He claimed that Pakistan had the second highest number of annual deaths (7 to 8 million) due to hepatitis.

Praising the Indus Hospital for providing quality healthcare services free of cost to people in Sindh and Punjab, he hoped that its hepatitis initiative would prove to be a ray of hope for the millions infected.

Renowned actor Sajid Hasan, also the UHZF’s brand ambassador, while speaking at the ceremony said he decided to join the campaign after learning that it was an initiative of the Indus Hospital.

He termed the lack of healthcare facilities as the biggest issue in Pakistan but urged people to be positive and work for the improvement, “because criticism would bring no change and respite for people already suffering due to neglect and inefficiency.”

Indus Hospital’s director operations who also hosted the event, Dr Zafar Zaidi, said they had decided to establish the foundation had initially had planned to raise Rs200 initially for this cause and establish a healthcare clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis in Karachi and then spread out.

Dr Zaidi urged the print and electronic media to further the cause and spread awareness regarding the disease being both preventable as well as curable if diagnosed at an early stage. World Health Organization (WHO) chief in Sindh Dr Sarah Sultan and other partners of the UHZF also attended the event. 

UZHF was launched by the Indus Hospital, in collaboration with its partners which included the World Health Organization (WHO), WWF-Pakistan, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Income Support Programme, Ihsan Trust, PharmEvo, Meezan Bank and other private sector organisations.

The UHZF would establish Hepatitis Care Clinics around the country while preventive measures would also be taken from its platform to stop the deadly disease from spreading.