KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Sunday said the Centre along with provincial governments would soon launch a cancer control programme under public-private partnership across the country.

“Cancers are on the rise alarmingly and 75 per cent of cancer patients die without getting treatment,” PM Abbasi said while addressing a fundraising event for Cancer Care Hospital at the Governor House.

He said it was need of the hour to rein in cancers on a war footing as the life-threatening diseases were engulfing the country alarmingly, adding that the country had insufficient facilities to treat cancer patients.

The prime minister said that according to facts and figures he had been provided, 75pc of cancer patients in Pakistan died without availing treatment facilities. He said the federal government was trying to improve the health sector and ensure that all parts of the country had good health care system.

Abbasi visits family of Sabika, offers condolence

“Establishment of the Cancer Care Hospital is a good omen. This project is worth nine billion rupees and I congratulate Dr Shaheryar and his team,” he added. He said running a hospital with better management was a bigger task than to set up a hospital, adding that a trust should be set up to run the hospital in a coordinated manner.

Mr Abbasi said the Cancer Care Hospital was performing better and “we hope that its reach would be widened in future”. He said the government was offering tax waivers and other facilities under provisions of the law to encourage welfare activities.

The prime minister admitted that the government was facing resource constraints in the health sector, but said it could be managed with the participation of the private sector. “The private sector will have to play its role alongside the government in protecting people from cancers and providing adequate treatment facilities to patients.”

He said Pakistan was leading in philanthropy and expressed the hope that generous donors would come forward and fully assist the hospital in becoming a leading facility in the country and beyond.

The prime minister said the federal and provincial governments were jointly providing sufficient facilities to the people in need of treatment and protection from lethal diseases.

He said programmes to control and eradicate polio, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases were being run successfully at the federal and provincial levels. A programme aimed at protecting people from cancer and providing treatment to patients would soon be launched at the federal and provincial levels, he added.

Mr Abbasi announced a donation of Rs100 million for the Cancer Care Hospital on behalf of the federal government.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abbasi visited the family of Sabika Sheikh, a Pakistani student who was killed in a school shooting in the United States the other day, and condoled with the bereaved family. He was accompanied by Sindh Governor Mohammad Zubair.

Expressing his grief and sympathy with the family, the prime minister said Sabika was a meritorious student and the entire nation was saddened by the news of her death in the violent incident.

He said extremist trends were not a problem for a country or region, but it was an international issue. “Along with looking for actual causes of such issues and going to resolve them, nations and countries should learn from each other’s experience,” Mr Abbasi said.

Sabika’s father thanked the prime minister and the governor for their visit and condolence.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018