I WAS astonished to read news reports stating that the Punjab government through a bill wants to end the autonomy of the Pakistan Kidney Liver institute by abolishing its board of trustees.

This news was doubly shocking because I have served in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as interim health minister in the last caretaker government.

I had witnessed first-hand that the same party, the PTI in power in Punjab now and then in power in KP had passed the Medical Teaching and Institution Reform Act in 2015, according to which the same model of public-private partnership had been used for providing effective healthcare for the poor in government teaching hospitals.

The important question which begs an answer is: how come a health model which is good for providing healthcare in KP is bad for doing the same in Punjab?

I pray the prime minister take urgent notice of the Punjab government move and saves a potentially good institution from going to ruin.

Akbar Jan Marwat

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2019