PPP wants “Health For All”: Bilawal Bhutto

Islamabad: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that PTI regime has a policy of “Health For the Elite” instead of “Health For All” and accused Imran Khan government for putting at risk the health of Pakistanis through its corruption-laden policies.

In his message on World Health Day being observed on Wednesday across the world under the aegis of World Health Organisation (WHO), the PPP Chairman said that health facilities were the basic right of the people of Pakistan and government must ensure safeguarding this right. However, the PTI regime has increased drug prices up to an unprecedented 260 percent, which has compelled a major segment of patients to reduce drug dosage or discontinue treatment.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that in Imran Khans cabinet, two Health Ministers were removed on corruption charges for being caught red handed in the drug price and import scandals but no visible action has been taken against them while the PTI regime continues playing havoc with public health.

He pointed out Sindh government had spent Rs 100 billion on the JPMC and NICVD hospitals in the province, where state of the art and expensive medical treatment is provided to patients of cardiovascular, liver, cancer and other diseases from all over Pakistan free of cost. “However, the PTI regime is plotting to turn this successful public healthcare model into a model of failure by attempting to take over these hospitals and run them into the ground like they have done in countless public health facilities like the provinces they rule,” he added.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Imran Khan first declared COVID-19 as a simple flu asking people not to get scared of it. He (Imran Khan) opposed the lockdown by Sindh government during the first wave of the pandemic only to follow the PPP-led Sindh governments lead after it took concrete steps to deal with the pandemic. Now, Imran Khan’s government is among only a few in the world, which has not purchased COVID-19 vaccines itself, relying solely on donated doses.

The PPP Chairman added that the illegitimate and incompetent selected government led by Imran Khan was not only a danger to the economic prosperity of the country but it was equally intent on systematically destroying the health sector. He lamented that PTIs neo-liberal policies worked only to enrich the few at the cost of the economic, social, health, and political wellbeing of every Pakistani citizen.