Medical expenditure: Overseas treatment for government officials weighs heavy on national kitty

Millions spent on their treatment; case moved by former minister seeking reimbursement.

ISLAMABAD: Overseas medical treatment of senior civil servants cost the public millions between 2006 and 2010 alone, revealed documents submitted by a petitioner at the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

The government has reimbursed around £210,173, $314,123, €20,422 and Rs124,272 to various politicians, bureaucrats, an ex-governor, a justice and several government servants who availed medical facilities abroad at state expenses during the five-year span.

A petition was moved by a former interim interior minister and ex-IGP, Major Malik Muhammad Habib, through his counsel Ahmed Raza Qasuri in the IHC. The petitioner pleaded that he was being denied reimbursement against expenditure incurred on medical treatment for his wife, as some of the officials in the Prime Minister’s Office were creating hurdles in presenting the summary of expenses before the premier for approval.

Qasuri submitted that Habib’s wife was suffering from trigeminal neuralgia and was initially treated by neurosurgeons in the twin cities. Due to her worsening condition, the neurosurgeons had recommended treatment using gamma knife surgery, which he claimed was not available in Pakistan and was only available in Cromwell Hospital, London.

The former minister’s wife, he said, was flown to London and obtained treatment in March 2005, adding that the total reimbursable expenditure came to Rs1,572,744 and the same was forwarded to the government through the health secretary. The ministry of health, however, responded that the government had imposed a ban on medical treatment abroad at public expense and therefore, the request could not be entertained, the petitioner stated.

Qasuri told the court that the petitioner then replied to the ministry with evidence that there were at least 31 cases where civil servants or their dependents were sent abroad for treatment and medical expenses were approved and borne by the Ministry of Health.

In this perspective, Qasuri said that he only wanted justice for his client.

The record submitted by the petitioner to the court revealed that former parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sher Afghan Khan Niazi, former Supreme Court Justice Javed Buttar, Former NWFP governor Khalilur Rehman, MNAs and several others were among the people whose treatment and medical expenses were approved and borne by the government.

Niazi went to the United Kingdom claiming treatment for a heart surgery in 2006 and a total of £25,000 were approved for his treatment. Justice Buttar received an eye surgery in the US in the same year and a total of $5,000 were approved for the procedure, according to the record.

Similarly, Rehman’s claim of €12,000 for spinal treatment in Germany was approved in 2008.

Riffat Amjad, a parliamentary secretary, underwent a liver transplant in China, which cost the government $40,000. Interestingly, Aman Rashid, a former deputy chief of protocol to the president of Pakistan, had travelled to the US for gamma knife surgery and his medical tab of $55,772 was refunded.

Habib had filed a contempt petition before IHC Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, as the principal secretary to the prime minister was directed by the court on June 14, 2014 to inquire about the latest developments regarding the summary.

Following the hearing, the court issued a notice to principal secretary to the prime minister with directions to inform the premier about the issue and submit a reply within two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  31^st,  2015.