Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that spending on the improvement of human capital is the best investment for their bright future and that is why the introduction of Sehat Insaf Card was a noble step of the present government which will provide access to better health services to more than 50% of the underprivileged population of the province.

He was addressing the audience of the distribution ceremony of Sehat Insaf Cards held under the Sehat Sahulat Programme at Gulbahar, Peshawar this morning. Those who addressed the ceremony included Provincial Minister for Health Sharam Khan Tarakai, MPA Shaukat Yousafzai, and Secretary Health Abid Majeed.

The Chief Minister termed the introduction of the Insaf Cards System “the first ever service of its nature in the country”. He added that even the federal government was trying to replicate it. He lauded the contribution of the health department for making the project a reality. The chief minister said that the Insaf Cards facility already introduced in four districts of the province was being extended to the whole province. “More than 50% of the population of the province will benefit from it”, he said.

The Chief Minister said that the provincial government was providing its own resources for the project. He said that people had voted for the provincial government to bring a change in the system, as resources were being plundered and there was an absence of justice in the province. He said that the provincial government had worked hard for chalking out a strategy to provide a system capable of delivering health care without any discrimination.

He said that the poor people faced great problems that needed an immediate rectification of the system. “The government has initiated reforms of the police system without which society cannot be reformed,” he remarked. He said that the present government put an end to political interference in police and made it into a servant of the people. He appealed to the people to have a vigilant eye over the performance of institutions to make the reforms successful.

The chief minister while referring to the reform strategy adopted for improvement of the education system, said that apart from overcoming missing facilities and provision of staff, a monitoring system was introduced. He said that steps taken by the government had brought visible improvement in the performance of the government-run schools due to which people prefer it for admission of their children rather than private institutions, he added.

Similarly highlighting reform initiatives of the government in the health sector, the CM said that besides enhancing salaries of the doctors three times, a monitoring system was introduced to ensure staff presence while autonomy was awarded to the tertiary health care hospitals to simplify and speed up the decision-making process. He declared that all doctors would be available in DHQ hospitals of the province until December this year. He said that apart from free emergency services, hepatitis and cancer treatment facilities were also available in the province.

He said that elected officials in the past had ruthlessly plundered resources of the province while the present government was not involved in any sort of corruption. Referring to the newly introduced Sehat Insaf Cards the chief minister appealed to the people to inform the government if they find any shortcomings in the system so that it could be rectified well and in time.

Earlier, Secretary for Health Abid Majeed while highlighting the silent features of Sehat Insaf Cards said that it would benefit 1.8 million families which constitute 51% of the population and comprise 14 million people. He said that distribution centres were established in BHUs for handing over the cards to deserving families in 986 union councils of the province. He further said that Sehat Insaf Card holders were selected through a transparent mechanism on the basis of a poverty elevation survey. He said that 0.54 million rupees would be provided to a cardholder family for treatment while an agreement had already been finalised with Zong for the communication of health related messages.