Siraj laments cut in health budget

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Sirajul Haq has lamented the reduction in health budget by federal and provincial governments at a time when the health system of the country has collapsed against corona epidemic and entire nation was standing face to face with a painful death. The reduction in health allocations was incomprehensible at a time when public sector hospitals had run out of capacity to take in patients, he said while addressing a press conference along with leaders of Young Doctors Association (YDA) at Mansoorah on Tuesday. He lamented what he called the non-serious attitude of PTI government in tackling coronavirus epidemic, saying on one hand Prime Minister Imran Khan had been repeatedly issuing contradictory and confusing statements about the virus threat while on the other hand a Punjab minister was callously declaring the nation ignorant. He said doctors and paramedical staff had not been provided the compulsory personal protective equipments and the same which were imported from China was donated to western countries, as a result dozens of doctors and paramedics have lost their lives fighting the epidemic and remaining doctors were terrified even to attend the patients. He asked when the rulers would awake from their slumber to provide PPEs to doctors and paramedics and ensure availability of medicines used for treatment of Coronavirus in the market at original rates.