LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the Punjab government on Saturday to involve the private sector in its development projects as resources at the government’s disposal were limited.

Mr Khan was co-chairing a meeting of the Punjab cabinet with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar at the CM’s Secretariat.

During his daylong visit to Lahore, the prime minister met Mr Buzdar and Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, and attended an iftar-dinner at the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital.

Says government not planning to privatise hospitals

In the meeting of the provincial cabinet, Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht briefed the prime minister on resource mobilisation and the use of public-private partnership initiatives for completing development projects planned for 2019-20.

Mr Khan said the Punjab government should try different public-private partnership models to ease the financial burden on the government. He also called for launch of projects aimed at increasing crop yields.

He said a one-window authority should be set up for facilitating investors. “The authority’s name has yet to be proposed but a committee was constituted to finalise recommendations,” he said.

Asserting that human resources were the country’s biggest strength, Mr Khan said the government needed to create more and more jobs for skilled and trained youths in the new development projects.

“Every development project should be aimed at serving the masses,” he added.

Acknowledging that meagre sums were allocated to the health and education sectors, the premier said the Rs12 billion going into the metro bus service as subsidy could have been better utilised had the money been diverted to the two social sectors instead.

Earlier, the prime minister met Governor Sarwar, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, his son Zain Qureshi and others at the Governor House just before iftar.

The governor briefed the premier on a business plan aimed to offer the facilities at Governor House for corporate events. Mr Sarwar said a committee constituted for the purpose had recommended two options — allowing corporate events throughout the week or only on weekends.

The governor said the public could visit the lawns of the Governor House on weekends and another proposal was ready to allow guided tours inside its buildings. An approval was, however, required to go ahead with the plan.

Mr Sarwar said he was arranging iftar-dinners for people from different walks of life on a daily basis without using a single penny from the public resources. He said the iftar-dinners would continue till the 28th day of Ramazan.

Governor Sarwar also briefed Mr Khan on the political situation in the province and other issues including matters relating to legislation.

In a meeting with Chief Minister Buzdar, the prime minister discussed subsidy for the public in Ramazan bazaars in the province. The chief minister said 309 such bazaars have been established across the province, where daily-use items are available for people at subsidised rates.

At an iftar-dinner at the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, Mr Khan said the government planned to introduce a management system in government hospitals, which was in force in private hospitals, to ensure that poor people got decent healthcare facilities.

Criticising all those who were opposing the new regime of carrot and stick at public hospitals, the prime minister asked whether the critics wanted to deprive poor people of good treatment at government-run institutions.

“Will it not be an injustice to the poor masses, if public sector hospitals’ standards continue to decline and the private sector hospitals continue to mint money,” he wondered.

Asserting that decent facilities for the masses could not be ensured without changing the rotten management system existing in the government hospitals, Mr Khan said it did not mean the government wanted to privatise them. “This is definitely not the objective of the government,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019