KARACHI:
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is experiencing a severe financial crunch, which was exemplified by the delays in salary and pension payments of government employees. The situation is a direct consequence of poor management and policies. The Sehat Insaf Card, which was one of the main projects of the PTI government, aimed to provide healthcare services to the entire population of K-P.
The programme can no longer operate because of a shortage of funds and rising debt. Perhaps, the K-P government should have gathered data on the different strata of the population and divided them into segments to ensure that those below the poverty line can receive free treatments while others with relatively higher incomes can receive low-cost or subsidised healthcare. They could have gathered this data from the excise and taxation department as well as through hospitals.
It is worth mentioning that many organisations and companies offer medical allowances to employees, but they avoided this because employees resorted to using the Insaf Card. Had the government filtered the population, the most deserving would have not had to suffer today. The government should have followed the same route as the Muft Atta Scheme and Benazir Income Support Programme to provide targeted support, but the policymakers failed to acknowledge this. Now the province is experiencing major upheaval.
Saad Jamil
Peshawar
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2023.
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