TAXILA: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said backward areas of the province would be brought at a par with developed cities.

He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Insaf Health Cards scheme in Attock on Sunday.

The chief minister said people living below the poverty line were being given priority in execution of different projects and the distribution of the health cards would help the poorest segments of society.

Says distribution of Insaf Sehat Cards among 111,000 families in Attock will be completed by end of May

He said a comprehensive roadmap was being implemented to provide patients with modern healthcare facilities. Under the health card scheme, each family can avail of Rs20,000 to Rs7 million medical facilities.

Mr Buzdar said around seven million families and 35 million people would benefit from the Sehat card scheme in Punjab.

He added that the cards would be given to 111,000 families in Attock district who would have access to well-equipped private hospitals. He said the process of distribution of the health cards in Attock would be completed by the end of this month.

He said a new local bodies system had been approved by the Punjab Assembly and the bill would bring a fundamental change to the local government system. Under the new system, public problems would be solved at the grassroots level.

He said the process of development had been started in under-developed districts and Attock was among them. He said in Attock a Mother and Child Healthcare Hospital would be set up while the DHQ and all THQ hospitals would be upgraded.

The chief minister announced rehabilitation and repair of Fatehjang-Pindigheb and Basal-Pindigheb roads and said funds for the projects would be allocated in the next fiscal year.

Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said giving health cards to the deserving people was a step towards a Madina like state and the start of the scheme from the backward districts of Rajanpur, DG Khan and Muzaffargarh was an ample proof of it.

She said so for 1,400 individuals had got medical treatment facility through these health cards.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam lauded the government for providing facilities to the poor and said the country was heading towards prosperity under the leadership of Imran Khan.

Minister for Revenue Mohammad Anwar Khan, Punjab Public Accounts Committee Chairman Syed Yawar Bokhari, MNA Tahir Sadiq and MPA Jamshed Altaf also spoke.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2019