Welfare initiatives in health sector: private sector's role significant: President

President Mamnoon Hussain Wednesday said that Pakistan ranks highest with its charity-to-income ratio in the world and emphasised that private sector can play an important role by taking welfare initiatives in health sector. Addressing at the ground-breaking of the country's first-ever Children Eye Hospital by Al-Shifa Trust on its 25th anniversary, the President said such projects by private sectors compliment the efforts of government that faces restraint of resources.
President Mamnoon Hussain mentioned that many under-developed areas of the country had no access to healthcare facilities and said the society could support the government in extending medical facilities to the deprived segment of population. He said the government was focusing on providing healthcare facilities to people and mentioned that the Health Card Scheme would be an important project in this regard.
He said the establishment of Children Eye Hospital would not only cater to the needs of local patients with visual impairment but would also benefit the children from other regional countries.
He felicitated Al-Shifa Trust on the silver jubilee of its establishment and expressed satisfaction that its different centres were treating 70 percent of patients free-of-cost. He also paid tributes to the founder of Al-Shifa Trust late Lieutenant General Jehandad Khan (Retd) whose vision of serving the masses was a source of inspiration for others. President Mamnoon said corruption had impacted the very fabric of society which he said was hampering the development of country.
He emphasised on waging a 'Jihad' against corruption and said it must be discouraged at all levels. The President said the government and the armed forces were determined to fight terrorism and stressed that Operation Zarb-e-Azb would continue till the elimination of last terrorist from the country's soil.
Mamnoon Hussain called upon the people to fully support the government and the Army to completely eliminate terrorism and extremism from the country. About the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said the project would bring a major economic turnaround in the country. He said with a number of energy initiatives under this project, the country would overcome the shortage of electricity by year 2018. Mamnoon Hussain said with completion of CPEC, Pakistan would become an important country of the region.