ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The government has decided to largely deregulate health and educational facilities in order to drastically improve all related services.

The participants of the Pakistan Human Development Forum were told here on Friday during the second day proceedings that public and private sector partnership will be the major strategy of the government for improving declining health and educational indicators.

Delegates from Japan, Norway, Canada, Germany and the UN agencies gave their views over various presentations specially made by the minister for education Zubeda Jalal and health minister Abdul Malik Kansi.

They called upon the government to improve services by associating public sector and the NGOs. The session on education was presided over by Lori Foreman, Assistant Administrator USAID, and Japanese ambassador in Pakistan Sadaki Namata presided the afternoon session on health.

The delegates from developed countries also called upon the government to ensure early devolution of power so that the public representatives could play their greater role for improving education and health related indicators.

Later briefing reporters, secretary economic affairs division Naveed Ahsan and additional secretary and the spokesman of the ministry of finance, Dr Waqar Masood Khan, said that the concept of greater public and private sector partnership was appreciated by the participants of the forum in spreading quality education and providing adequate health facilities to the people of Pakistan.

“Public private sector partnership does not mean that the government has decided to commercialize health and education sectors”, Naveed Ahsan clarified.

Dr Waqar said that the government will continue to provide necessary facilities but the major task will have to be carried out by the private sector specially in the education sector.

He said educational institutions in the public sector have been destroyed, things were not all that bad in the health sector where basic health units were performing well. In this behalf he referred to immunization programme and population welfare programme that aimed at reducing the population growth rate.

He said that experts, like Anita Ghulam Ali, Shahid Kardar and Sabih Qamaruzzman presented their papers to promote quality education and ensuring health facilities for all both in rural and urban areas.

Dr Waqar said that chairman of the Task Force on human development Dr Nasim Ashraf offered his comments on inexpensive health facilities.

He also disclosed that about 190 schools in Sindh were being given to private people to run them efficiently.

He said 300 applications had been received which were being scrutinized with a view to hand over these public schools to private sector.

“The participants of the forum talked about alternative approaches to remove weaknesses from the country’s education system”, he said adding that alternative approaches meant to ask the private sector to take the responsibility of running the educational institutions efficiently.

“The government was also asked to improve its monitoring system”, he said adding that delegates pointed out that devolution needed to take some proper shape and that element of accountability should also be there.