Electoral promise: Health sector gets 13%

PESHAWAR: With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) reiterating its focus on health, the provincial government has allocated over 13 per cent of the provincial budget for the health sector.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra said that they were allocating Rs78.65 billion of the total provincial budget for the health sector, including Rs11.65 billion for development projects.

This is up 19.7 per cent from the Rs65.7 billion reserved for the sector in last year’s budget.

Jhagra told the house that the provincial health insurance scheme, the Sehat Sahulat Card, will be extended to a further 800,000 families throughout the province apart from strengthening and running the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH), Lady Health Workers, Expanded Programme for Immunization, different health facilities and upgrading existing health facilities.

Referring to the government’s 100-day plan, he said that they were working on a project to improve service delivery at 800 basic health units across the province. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2018.