PESHAWAR: The unwillingness of federal government to provide Rs7 billion to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is hampering implementation of the integrated health programme, according to sources.

They said that provincial government had planned integration of the health programmes, run by the federal government, after passage of 18th Amendment according to which several departments were devolved to the federating units. But the move was being hindered as federal government was reluctant to provide the amount to the provincial government, they added.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered regularisation of all lady health workers (LHWs) in the country, directing the centre to continue paying amount to the provinces of their salaries till 2017.

The Council of Common Interests (CCI) had also decided that the federal government, which ran the health programme in the country before passage of 18th Amendment, was liable to provide salaries of the workers to the provinces.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already approved a PC-1 of Rs22 billion to integrate LHWs, Maternal and Neonatal Child Health Programme, HIV/Aids Control Programme, Tuberculosis Control Programme, Malaria Programme, Blindness Control Programme and hepatitis and influenza programmes into health department.

Before the passage of 18th Amendment, these programmes were financed by the federal government in all provinces. Now the provinces have taken over these programmes.

Of the total cost of the integrated PC-1, the federal government was required to pay Rs7 billion for salaries of 13,500 LHWs to the province whereas the remaining Rs15 billion would be paid by the provincial government to implement the long-awaited integration programme, sources said.

The province will receive 40 million sterling pounds from UK and 30 million Australian dollars through World Bank for the programme. The former had already sent first installment of 4 million pound to the province that remained unspent.

The donors have also expressed concern over delay in the implementation of the programme because their amount couldn’t be utilised till release of the centre’s share.

The last meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), held in Islamabad a fortnight ago, had refused to approve the desired amount for the province. The Ecnec had notified a committee of chief secretaries of all the provinces with federal finance secretary as its head to resolve the issue. All the provinces had similar issues with the federal government.

The health department had already sent a note to the chief secretary to pursue the issue and avoid any further delay.

Sources said that the committee notified by Ecnec was more likely to approve the desired amount for the province if health department followed the case. The department desperately needed administrative approval of the PC-1 because more delay could further disappoint donor agencies, they added.

The plan is aimed at absorbing the federal government-sponsored programmes and their employees in the health department. The previous government had prepared a PC-1 for the purpose but couldn’t implement it owing to non-availability of funds.

The province had prepared work plan to take over the programmes of federal government and merge them with the health department. The health department had asked the provincial government to make sure availability of the amount as refusal by the federal government was clear violation of the decisions of the Supreme Court as well as CCI.