F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Advisor to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Information and Public Relations, Barrister Dr. Saif, has responded to a statement by Federal Minister Atta Tarar, saying that before criticizing the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Atta Tarar should compare the education and health sectors of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He will be left with nothing but embarrassment.
The Information Advisor stated that education and health are among the top priorities of the government, and Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur is paying special attention to these sectors in line with the vision of Imran Khan.
He further stated that under the Sehat Card Plus program, free medical services have been provided to 4.4 million citizens of the province.
The provincial government has also included expensive and life-saving treatments like kidney, liver, bone marrow, and cochlear transplants in the Sehat Card program.
The budget for the Sehat Card Plus has been increased from Rs. 28 billion to Rs. 35 billion, which is 25% higher than the previous year. Similarly, Rs. 6 billion have been allocated under the health facility program for the merged districts.
For the improvement of basic health centers, Rs. 1.2 billion have been allocated for over 2,500 rural and urban health centers.
As part of the budget, newborn care centers will be established in five districts, and satellite centers of Peshawar Institute of Cardiology will be set up in Mardan and Bannu. Furthermore, the health budget has been increased by 19%, from Rs. 232 billion last year to Rs. 276 billion this year.
Barrister Dr. Saif also stated that the education budget has been increased by 11%, from Rs. 327 billion to Rs. 363 billion. In the previous year alone, 16,000 teachers were recruited, and this year, Rs. 5 billion have been allocated for the enrollment of out-of-school children.
Barrister Dr. Saif added that the budget for the province’s universities has been increased from Rs. 3 billion to Rs. 10 billion. Special funds have been allocated to improve basic facilities in schools, which will benefit 5.9 million students in 32,500 government schools by providing teaching materials, classroom repairs, and promoting extracurricular activities.
Barrister Dr. Saif concluded by stating that the federal government and provincial government of Punjab are unable to compete with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in any sector, which is why their ministers are merely engaged in empty rhetoric and pointless criticism.
