Peshawar
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health and Finance Timur Saleem Jhagra on Saturday lambasted the federal government for rolling back allocations for health card of merged districts of the province.
He claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had approved allocations for erstwhile Fata people health coverage but the incumbent government led by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz has stoped it.
Taimur Saleem Jhagra accused that centre has decided to roll back health card program in tribal district and put burden on the KP Government to carry the program with its own resources.
The provincial Health Minister announced that the federal government has informed KP government through a letter regarding termination of funding for the program and provision of funds from the province for the health card of the people of the tribal districts.
He explained that in the previous government, Asad Umar and former finance minister Shaukat Tareen had agreed to transfer the health card funds of tribal people to the province, which was formally approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan However, government in the centre did not allow tribal people to avail health card facility, adding that incumbent government would not be allowed to rights of tribal belt.
The provincial leadership will raise its voice for this atrocity against the tribal people, he added that the federal government wants to push the tribesmen back into darkness.
He asked why the political parties, which are fighting for the rights of the province, and the politicians who are shouting at the rights of the tribals, are silent on this abuse today.
He further said that the federal government had earlier cut more than Rs 21 billion on the budget of the tribal districts and now it is playing with the future of the tribal people by withholding health card funds of 5 million poor people of the tribal districts.
Timur Jhagra said that the tribal people were already affected by this system, the government should not politicize their health and plight, they have already sacrificed their share.
