Priority?: Govt cuts health development by Rs14b

Defies its own promises of boosting spending in the sector

ISLAMABAD: Despite electoral promises of focusing on health and prioritising the sector for budgetary allocations, the new government has failed to deliver on this promises with a health budget featuring a cut Rs14 billion.

The previous government had allocated a budget of Rs25.44 billion for development projects relating to health.

In the supplementary budget presented by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) recently, the budget for development projects had been cut to just Rs10.89 billion, a cut of Rs14 billion.

As per the document, the government has decided to remove as many as 20 health projects which had been listed by the out-going Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

Consequently, the number of health projects which the government was set to introduce reduced from 57 to just 37.

The federal government, in presenting the supplementary budget, had cut overall development expenditures by Rs172 billion for the ongoing fiscal year citing austerity measures. However, non-development measures were increased to a whopping Rs4.4 trillion.

The federal government has thus defied its own claims.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had in his inaugural speech said that they would pay particular attention to the health sector.

In this regard, he had promised to turn around conditions at government-run hospitals even as he acknowledged that it was a difficult task to bring about swift reforms and had promised to set up a task force for the purpose.

He had added that he was determined to take drastic steps in other parts of the country as had been taken in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

He had also promised to introduce health insurance cards, covering medical treatment expenses of up to Rs550,000 in government hospitals, for the poor and needy. Already, a task force has started operating under Federal Health Minister Aamir Mehmood Kiani.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2018.