Sirajul Haq deplores cut in health budget at time of coronavirus pandemic

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq has lamented the reduction in health budget by federal and provincial governments at a time when the health system of the country had collapsed against corona pandemic and the entire nation is helpless.

The reduction in health allocations by federal and provincial was incomprehensible at a time when public sector hospitals had run out of capacity to take in patients and provide them with even the basic treatment, he said while addressing a press conference along with leaders of Young Doctors Association (YDA) at Mansoorah here on Tuesday.

He lamented over what he called 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 Punjab minister was callously declaring the nation ignorant. He said doctors and paramedical staff had not been provided the compulsory personal protective equipment and alleged that those imported from China were donated to western countries, adding that as a result, dozens of doctors and paramedics have lost their lives fighting against the epidemic and the 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.

Sirajul Haq expressed sorrow that PTI government had been apathetic towards the disappearance of life saving drugs of corona virus from the market and selling of some drugs at hundred times higher prices, adding that hospitals were without ventilators and masses were left to the mercy of the circumstances. It was ironic that numbers of patients were decreasing worldwide while the infection was spreading rapidly in Pakistan, he said and added the rulers had wasted three months failed to develop any policy to curb the pandemic.