LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for payment of health card dues.

In a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, it was told that the federal government has to pay Rs7.5 billion for the health card programme.

The CM said that Punjab has paid 100% towards the health card dues while the federal government has not given a single rupee for this public welfare project.

He noted that the Punjab government was providing facilities for the free treatment of patients in Azad Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad on the health card.

The CM maintained that the health card is the flagship programme of chairman PTI Imran Khan and all citizens of Punjab can avail of this facility whenever and wherever they want. The health coverage was being provided to the whole population of Punjab without discrimination, he added.

In Punjab, 821 hospitals including 206 government and 615 private hospitals are providing free treatment on the health card. About 80,000 beds are available in the hospitals and more than 2.8 million people have benefited from the health card programme of Punjab. Dialysis, cardiology and other diseases can be treated under the health card programme, he further said. A detailed briefing was given about the health card programme. Moreover, talking to Chairperson of Child Protection & Welfare Bureau (CPWB) Sarah Ahmad, the CM felicitated her for receiving the award in Italy and expressed his happiness that chairperson CPWB was placed among the top ten people for the global award.

He directed to make CPWB more vibrant and expressed best wishes for the chairperson and the children. Parvez Elahi noted that helping hapless children is the best example of human empathy. Forcing children to beg is a social tragedy and the government will rid society of this evil; he added and reiterated all-out support to CPWB.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022