Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification poses no threat to parliament, democracy: Bilawal

LARKANA: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif poses no threat either to parliament and or to democracy in Pakistan and called for adherence to the decision given by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“PM’s disqualification poses no threat to parliament and democracy in Pakistan. Pakistan People’s Party believes in impartial and across-the-board accountability without any discrimination in the country," he said after inaugurating the Satellite Center of National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) at the Civil Hospital, Larkana.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Health Minister Dr. Sikandar Mandhro, PPP Sindh President Nisar Khuhro, Secretary Health Fazlullah Pechuho, provincial ministers, PPP MNAs and MPAs, senators and leaders and workers of the party were also present on the occasion.

Bilawal Bhutto praised the Sindh government, especially the Sindh Health department, for providing state-of-the-art health facilities to the people of Sindh, especially Larkana, and said it was his mother’s dream to provide top quality health and education facilities to each and every citizen of Pakistan.

“NICVD and its services are a source of pride for us and I challenge chief ministers of Punjab, Balochistan and KPK to show me any such program or institute which is serving the people of Pakistan like the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Karachi," he added.

The chairman PPP maintained that the people of Pakistan should be served without any discrimination, saying that is only being done at the state-of-the-art health institutions in Sindh, including SIUT, NICVD and JPMC where people from all over the country were arriving to seek medical treatment without paying any single penny from their pockets.

Showing his affection for the city of Larkana, he said this city shed precious blood for democracy and it is very close to his heart for the sacrifices of his grandfather and great mother for the people of Pakistan and vowed to serve the people of Larkana by providing them every possible facility, including health and education services at their doorstep.

Paying tribute to his slain mother Benazir Bhutto, the PPP chairman said provision of health and education services was among her top-most priorities and in order to achieve that target, she took several important initiatives, including Lady Health Workers (LHWs) program, which was expanded by the present PPP provincial government and all the LHWs were regularized in the province.

Calling for human resource development in the area of healthcare in Sindh, he said they were focusing on upgrading existing health facilities, starting modern ambulance service in the province and provision of safe blood transfusion facilities in the districts to save previous human lives.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari felicitated the NICVD and its Executive Director Prof. Nadeem Qamar for starting the world’s largest Primary PCI program in Sindh where free angioplasties were being performed on a large number of heart attack patients and hoped that the number of patients availing this facility would be increased each year.

In his address, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali claimed that arrival of patients from Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to SIUT, NICVD and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) shows that provincial governments of those provinces had failed to provide quality health facilities to their people and vowed to provide more state-of-the-art health facilities to the people of Sindh and Pakistan in the coming days.

“When we acquired the NICVD from the federal government, its budget was merely Rs1.8 billion but we increased it to Rs5.8 billion, enabling it to provide state-of-the-art health facilities and surgeries free of cost to thousands of people and serving millions of patients during the last couple of years," he informed.

According to him, some of the health facilities, including cardiac ailments’ treatment at the NICVD, Cyber Knife facility at the JPMC and urological treatment facilities at the SIUT, were not available in the rest of the country and even in some countries of the region and added that the PPP led provincial government would continue serving the people of Sindh, who always supported the PPP since 1970.

Sindh Health Minister Dr. Sikandar Mandhro felicitated the chairman PPP for inaugurating the state-of-the-art health facility at his mother’s hometown and informed him that the provincial health department was striving to provide quality cancer treatment, establish modern pediatric health facilities and surgical centers in the province.

“As we have only one Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) facility in Sindh which is in the private sector, the Sindh government has decided to finance the expensive BMT procedures of over 150 children in the private sector every year," he announced.

Executive Director NICVD Prof. Dr. Nadeem Qamar gave a detailed briefing on the health services provided by the NICVD to the people of Sindh, saying they were establishing seven satellite centers of NICVD in various districts of Sindh, one of which was inaugurated by Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Larkana, where so far 140 angioplasties and a total of 180 surgical procedures had been performed since its establishment.

“NICVD, which is the world’s largest Primary PCI Center, in now stepping into Larkana city and is providing major cardiac facilities of Interventional Cardiology in collaboration with the Government of Sindh. This is a great achievement of NICVD to another step in the continuing journey towards excellence in healthcare, particularly in cardiovascular health. We have arrived at this point through the joint efforts and tremendous contributions of Sindh government," he added.

Prof. Nadeem Qamar maintained that NICVD is opening three more such centers in Tando Muhammad Khan, Sukkur and Sehwan and they are all expected to start functioning in 2017. Further three more centers in Nawabshah, Khairpur and Mirpurkhas will be operational in 2018. So that cardiac services can be promptly and easily are accessible to people of entire Sindh at their doorstep.

“As Executive Director, I am really proud and feel greatly honored that as a team we have proven that once determination is there, and will to achieve is embedded in the soul, everything is possible. And by the grace of the Almighty we will continue to do more for the benefit of the Sindh Province. The NICVD’s team, including cardiologists, technical staff, nurses and management have helped in setting the course of efforts to bring the most advanced and specialized heart care to the region and country”, he added.