ISLAMABAD: Unlike the people of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the people of Islamabad, Azad Jammu Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan have been denied access to healthcare facilities since the federal government failed to pay for the health card program.
Based in Islamabad, Raja Zafran Bhatti, 41, suffers from heart disease. He went to Pims recently for medical care, but the hospital turned him down for free care, stating he would have to pay for further tests and facilities. The hospital administration informed him that the service for the people of Islamabad had been suspended because the federal government had not paid its debt to State Life and that Islamabad was the permanent residence listed on his ID card.
“I was taken aback… I had an angioplasty at Pims in 2022 and didn’t spend a single rupee for it,” he stated, lamenting the fact that people in the federal capital could not receive free care like those who were based in Punjab and KP.
The State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan has been involved in the health care service from its inception in 2015. In 2021, the company was awarded a contract for a further three years, spanning from 2022 to 2025.
Due to the center’s failure to pay, health card service has been suspended.
The health card helpline worker acknowledged that the free treatment for residents of AJK, GB, and Islamabad had been discontinued due to financial constraints when this correspondent called. “Nevertheless, because their government has covered the cost, residents of Punjab and KP are receiving the facility,” he stated.
According to Muhammad Arshad, chief executive officer of the Sehat Sahulat Program, the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives was processing the amended PC-1 authorization, which should be received in about a week. Khaqan Waheed Khawaja, the director of Rawal Hospital, deemed the event regrettable. He expressed dissatisfaction that although private hospitals were empanelled, the KP government was the only one permitting its citizens to receive medical care from private hospitals, with state-owned hospitals being the only option available in Punjab.
“The service needs to be reinstated right away because the facility’s suspension is causing hundreds of people to return empty-handed. The fact that so many people have been denied access to free medical care is evident,” Mr. Khawaja, who is also the leader of the Pakistan Awami Quwat party, said.
CEO of the Sehat Sahulat Program Arshad Khan told Dawn that the program’s extension for those who are not below the poverty line has been granted by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) beyond June 30, 2024. In a written response, he stated, “The revised PC-1 authorization is being processed at Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives and should be received in approximately a week for the start of service and funding allocation for clearing State Life approved pending liabilities in line with that.”
As the “first step towards making Pakistan a welfare state,” former prime minister Nawaz Sharif introduced the health card program for citizens of Islamabad on December 31, 2015.
He had said that all of Punjab, Balochistan, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan, and the erstwhile Fata region would be added to the card. At the time, the project had not benefited the people of Sindh or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) because the administrations of those two states had refused to participate in the federal government’s scheme, to which they were also required to contribute. Later, KP introduced the Sehat Insaf Card, a health card.
With the exception of the majority of Sindhi areas, the initiative was extended nationwide during the PTI administration. Some hospitals stopped providing the service in April 2022 from to concern that the PML-N will cease it since the PTI had pushed it as their initiative. The PML-N, however, carried on with the initiative.
