Punjab govt come down to give govt hospitals on contract: Ch Pervaiz Elahi

Lahore: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior central leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has said that after seeking donations for 1122 Punjab govt has come down to give govt hospitals on contract also, this announcement is ample proof of its failure.

In a statement issued here today, he said that canteens are given on contract in govt hospitals but nobody could even imagine that any govt can give entire hospital on contract, this step of Punjab not only amounts to playing with lives of the people but also violation of the Constitution of Pakistan because after 18th Amendment, health sector has been declared a provincial subject fully and the hospitals under the Federal Govt are now also running under the provincial govt as such no provincial govt can escape from this constitutional obligation.

Ch Parvez Elahi pointedly stated that we had increased budget of health department by as much as 134 per cent during our tenure, for the first time in the history of Pakistan patients were provided free medicines in govt hospitals, revolutionary service like 1122 was started which has saved lakhs of lives so far, most modern cardiology hospitals were set up in Faisalabad and Wazirabad, new emergency blocks and operation theatres were provided in big and district headquarters hospitals but brutality of Shahbaz Sharif can be judged from the bitter fact that some of the mega health projects which we had started have either been completely scrapped and funds of others including Fatima Jinnah Institute of Dental Sciences, Punjab Institute of Neurosurgery, Surgical Town Mayo Hospital, Burn Centre Jinnah Hospital have been stopped.

He said that Wazirabad Cardiology Hospital established by us for the districts of Gujranwala Division has not been made functional for seven years even due to which about four thousand heart patients have expired so far. He said it is clear from these steps of the Punjab govt that health sector is not among the priorities of the Punjab Govt and all its claims in this regard are merely white lies.