The incumbent rulers are responsible for 356 per cent increase in medicine prices :Dr Yasmin Rashid

Lahore: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman’s advisor Dr Yasmin Rashid has said the allocation of mere 0.7 per cent of GDP on health facilities has stamped rulers’ anti-poor policies. On the other hand, she said, the unbridled 356 per cent increase in medicine prices had also exposed incumbent rulers’ senselessness towards masses.

Addressing different party workers’ delegations at her office on Tuesday, Dr Yasmin Rashid said the PML-N government seemed working on an agenda to eliminate poor masses instead of alleviating poverty and creating facilities for the people. She said the nation had been pushed against the wall.

Dr Yasmin said the combined budget of provincial and federal government was less than 0.7 per cent and recorded as the lowest for health sector among the comity of nations around the globe. Chiding the Prime Minister, Dr Yasmin said Nawaz Sharif had spent some Rs 660 million on his foreign tours but never considered spending funds on hospitals, where up to four patients were lying on a bed and others sitting on chairs or even floors.

She said the patients were also dieing because of the non-availability of medicines in the hospitals. However, the rulers have shown no sensitivity towards patients in its present and previous tenures. Similarly, she said, different diseases including polio, TB, hepatitis and even malnutrition were taking its toll. She said the infant and child mortality rate was continuously rising. She said Pakistan had always ashamed, when its state of health affairs were reported at international level.