Sindh to launch mental health programme

Assembly session on budget continues, opposition and treasury criticise each other

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Saturday that the provincial government will launch a community-based mental health programme to address mental illnesses faced by many in the province.

During the post-budget discussion in the House, Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said that unemployment and stress lead to or at least contribute to development and sustenance of mental illnesses. These, she added, impact a certain vulnerable section of society. Pechuho shared that treatment, rehabilitation and prevention would form key components of the mental health programme.

"We will initially be starting a pilot project which will later be scaled up to include the entire province," said the minister. Responding to the budget speeches of opposition members, she added that the budget for the health department has been increased by 19% of which Rs13 billion have been reserved for the development portfolio.  She informed the House of the schemes executed by her department in the current fiscal year, including health centres and provision of equipment to various hospitals, and told them about upcoming initiatives for the fiscal year 2019-20.

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Talking about projects working under the public-private partnership (PPP) modality, she said that more than 1,000 health facilities including hospitals and basic health centres have been given to various reputable organisations. "No other government in this region has worked as we do under public private partnership in the health sector," she said.

Regarding the HIV outbreak in Larkana, Pechuho said, "it has opened our eyes and we have conducted around 28,000 screenings, which is the highest ever recorded in the history of Pakistan". She added that the spread of HIV virus was not confined to Sindh alone but is also prevalent in other provinces. "We have reserved around Rs1 billion to deal with infectious diseases," she said.

The health minister further told the House that the provincial government had regularised the cadre of lady health workers (LHWs) and will enhance their strength too. She also spoke about trauma centres and upgradation of the taluka hospitals.

During the session, members from the opposition and treasury benches continued to give their budget speeches. The ministers from the opposition continued to call it a 'jugglery of words', like they did on the first assembly session on budget, while the treasury benches continued to insist it was a 'balanced budget'.

Energy department

Shaharyar Khan Mahar of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) said that while the energy department had been allocated Rs25 billion, almost all its schemes have yet to be approved. He criticised the PPP's leaders for minting public money and said, "Yesterday in his budget speech, former opposition leader in the National Assembly, Khursheed Shah, levelled allegations against the federal government. I just want know from where he earned assets amounting to Rs50 billion."

He said that Khursheed, who started his career as meter reader [clerk], now owns properties worth billions of rupees.  He berated the PPP's leaders for misusing the name of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for personal gain and said, "Stop misusing Bhutto's name and deliver in the province".

Imdad Ali Pitafi of PPP, responding to Mahar, said that it was the PPP which had given a chance to people from middle and lower-middle class, like Khursheed Shah, in politics. "Shah, through his talent, has proved that he is sincere, committed and a hardworker," he said, adding that people like Mahar have always appeased dictators and they are anti-democrats. He appreciated the PPP government for presenting a pro-people budget and said that the opposition members don't read the budget and simply come to the House to criticise the government.

Health and education

Dua Bhutto of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), presenting the gloomy figures in the education and health sectors, said that around 80% of the people living in Sindh are forced to consume contaminated water and around 5,000 schools are closed in the province. "If a dog bites any person, there is no anti-rabies vaccination available," she said, adding that a single meal for a minister costs thousands of rupees and yet poor children sleep on an empty stomach. "People spent their entire lives struggling for justice barefoot, but these feudals never heed their plight," said Dua.

Makhdoom Mehboob Zaman of PPP who holds the portfolio of the revenue department presented his speech, which he had written in English, and lauded the efforts of PPP's leadership and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah for bringing reforms in the province. His speech focused on tax collection, including sales tax on services and property tax. He said that the provincial government has increased the development budget for education, health, energy and law and order, which was a good omen. Criticising the opposition in the assembly, he said, "The people of Sindh have placed their trust in PPP and the party will never ever give any chance to those people who have compromised on Sindh's issues with certain quarters."

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Adeel Shahzad of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement - Pakistan (MQM-P) showing the budget books, said, "These books are filled with evidence of Sindh government's incompetence".  Calling the irrigation department the most corrupt, he said that most of its budget goes in the pockets of bureaucrats and other officials.

He said that there were nine schemes in education department which were approved in 2008 and will be finished in 2020. "I want to know why it takes the government 20 years to build a school," said Shahzad.

He said that Orangi Town was the largest katchi abadi (squatter settlement) in Pakistan, but it has only eight government schools. "It has a population of around 2.7 million people and around 0.6 million children are out of schools," said Shahzad and suggested the government to build and outsource schools as it did not have the capacity to manage it.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2019.