N-League, PTI doing politics of GT Road: Bilawal

KARACHI: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said in the coming elections, people would have to decide whether they wanted to vote for those who claimed to start the metro bus service in Punjab and plant so-called billion trees in KP or those who are establishing state of the art hospitals in Sindh and providing the best available healthcare facilities to masses.

“We are going for elections in the coming year and people would have to decide between the N-League who says they have started theMetro Bus service and PTI, which says they have planted billions of so-called trees or for those who are establishing state of the art hospitals for the treatment of cardiac ailments, cancer and organ transplants in Sindh," Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said while inaugurating the 3rd Satellite Center of National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) at the Civil Hospital, Hyderabad.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Health Minister Dr. Sikandar Mandhro, Sindh Health Secretary Dr. Fazlullah Pechuho, Executive Director NICVD Dr. Nadeem Qamar, provincial ministers, advisers, PPP senators and leaders and a large number of workers were also present on the occasion.

The N-League and the PTI are doing politics of the GT Road, he added. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari alleged that both the co-called big political parties, including N-League and PTI, were fighting to regain the control for the GT Road, referring to the areas on both sides of the historic Grand Trunk Road, but claimed that PPP in Sindh was actualizing the dream of his late mother Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and Z.A Bhutto by establishing healthcare facilities and providing quality education to masses.

He further claimed that despite being heartbroken due to the hanging of his grandfather by a dictator and killing of his mother in the reign of another dictator, he decided to carry on with their missions and asked the provincial government of Sindh to serve the masses and realise the dreams of his ancestors in providing the best possible healthcare and education facilities.

On the occasion, he directed the Sindh chief minister and Sindh health department to establish such satellite centers in every district of the province, saying more branches of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT), cancer treatment centers and organ transplant facilities should be in each and every major city and town of the province so that costly healthcare services could be provided free of charge to the people of Sindh.

Declaring NICVD as the South Asia’s largest cardiac ailments treatment centre, he said Sindh was the only place in the entire world where complete treatment of heart ailments, costly cancer treatment, organ transplantation and other facilities were provided free of charge and vowed to continue serving the people of Sindh and rest of Pakistan with similar zeal and enthusiasm.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah claimed that despite serving and providing healthcare facilities to the people of entire Pakistan at NICVD, SIUT and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC) where people from Balochistan, Punjab and even KPK were arriving for free treatment of diseases, the media was not highlighting their successes in the field of healthcare and urged the media to help in showcasing their achievements.

“Following the vision of our Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, we would establish the NICVD’s Satellite Center in each and every district of Sindh while mobile chest pain units would be placed in every Tehsil of the province to save lives of people having heart problems," he vowed.

On this occasion, he sought permission of the Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in renaming NICVD as Sindh Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (SICVD) but Bilawal continued to refer the institute as NICVD in his speech.

Executive Director NICVD Dr. Nadeem Qamar thanked Bilawal Bhutto for attending the inauguration ceremonies of every satellite center of the NICVD in the province and said his personal interest and enthusiasm were helping them in establishing more such centers in the province.

“NICVD’s fourth center in Sehwan is ready for inauguration in the coming week while NICVD Sukkur, a complete cardiac hospital, would start functioning from January next year," he announced and vowed that cardiac treatment facilities including Primary Angioplasty and other services would be extended to each and every district of the province.

Agencies add: Former president Mr Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Pakistan People's Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have greeted the Christian community on the eve of Christmas falling on Monday December 25 In his message, Asif Zardari said: "I wish to felicitate Christians all over the world particularly our Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan on the auspicious occasion of Christmas. Jesus Christ May Allah be pleased with him preached love forgiveness and brotherhood values that we need to inculcate more than ever before," he said. "On this occasion, I also condemn the growing incidents of misuse of some religion based laws against the citizens and call for an end to it. The party reiterates its pledge to protect the Christians, indeed all non Muslims from discrimination and misuse of religion based laws against them. The PPP wishes to acknowledge with deep appreciation the great contributions of the Christian community towards the development and wellbeing of Pakistan."

Separately, in a felicitation message on the eve of Christmas, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that his party has always fought for the downtrodden and the marginalized.