PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Khaliqur Rehman said here on Thursday that healthcare services in the province had steadily improved over the years and remained a top priority for the provincial government.
Addressing a press conference along with the adviser to chief minister on finance, Muzzammil Aslam, he said that health system of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had seen marked improvement since 2013.
He said that health budget for the current fiscal year was increased from Rs256 billion to Rs325 billion. He recalled that the province’s total health budget stood at just Rs30.3 billion in 2013. He said that free treatment scheme, Sehat Card Plus programme, was launched to save people from financial burden of costly treatments such as heart surgery, liver transplants and kidney transplants. He said that similar programmes launched in other provinces had been discontinued.
Announces construction of major hospitals in different districts
The minister said that the medicine procurement process for the current fiscal year began timely on July 1 and past irregularities in the process were addressed.
He said that Rs1.2 billion was allocated for lady health workers programme while 72 hospitals in remote areas were being outsourced to address the issue of shortage of doctors.
He said that Healthcare Commission was also being strengthened to check illegal medical practices.
The minister said that new major hospitals would be built on Ring Road, in Kohat and in Malakand, while a “Health City” project was also under consideration.
“Additionally, a new system called “DHIS2” is being introduced to digitise patients’ complete medical records, with each patient to be issued a tracking number,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Muzzammil Aslam said tha former prime minister Imran Khan had always maintained that health was a fundamental right of every citizen, regardless of his ability to pay. He said that Sehat Card Plus was first launched in 2016, with the provincial government beginning to formally allocate funds for it from 2020 onward.
He said that 1.1 million families in KP benefitted from the free treatment scheme. He said that budget of the scheme was increased to approximately Rs51 billion. He added that the programme had been suspended by the caretaker government, sparking strong public backlash.
Mr Aslam said that 1,090,000 people benefited from the programme in 2024-25, while the number rose to 1,329,353 in 2025-26. In just the first month of the current fiscal year alone, 128,917 people benefited from the scheme, he added.
He said that cochlear implant, used to restore hearing and speech in children and costing around Rs2.6 million per patient, was also included in the free treatment scheme. Similarly, kidney transplants cost around Rs2 million and liver transplants around Rs6.3 million per patient, but the provincial government decided to continue providing those facilities to people despite resource constraints, he added.
Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2026
