INP
ISLAMABAD
Former central information secretary of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Senator Taj Haider has said that the federal government needs to concentrate on overcoming the chaotic shortage of public sector hospitals in Islamabad rather than engaging in senseless and insulting propaganda about establishing hospitals in Sindh and other provinces.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Senator Taj Haider said that 60 percent patients in government hospitals in Sindh come from the other three provinces and Islamabad. He said t hat tertiary hospitals for kidney transplants, cardiovascular diseases, liver transplants, cyber knife treatment of cancer etc; have been set up and are being run by the government of Sindh in the province where the most expansive treatment is done ‘Free of Cost’.
The PPP leader said that no one expects the federal government to set up tertiary level hospitals for these specialized treatments, since they neither have the capacity nor the will to undertake such ventures, but setting up of some secondary level hospitals in Islamabad would certainly reduce the load of patients on the hospitals in Sindh.
Senator Taj Haider said that the total collapse of FBR coupled with fraudulent reduction of Sindh’s population in Census 2017 has caused severe paucity of financial resources in the Province.
The drop of 28 % in FBR’s collection has caused a reduction of almost 90 billion in Sindh’s share in the NFC Divisible Pool in the last six months.
He said that the provincial taxes of Sindh have shown a growth of 18% during this period but this addition cannot make up for the loss of 170/180 billion in Federal Transfers at the end of the year.
Our social sector and development programs would be severely affected due to resource shortfalls while migration into Sindh of our dispossessed brethren from other provinces is on the increase, he said adding that we want our true share and certainly not the fake benevolence or empty and insulting rhetoric.
Senator Taj Haider said that the PPP in its election manifesto had proposed that the Federation and the Provinces should jointly collect the Federal taxes. The resulting rise in tax collection could have reduced the revenue deficit to a great extent besides ensuring larger transfers to the provinces but unfortunately the federation is too involved in heaping insults on others to be able to listen to any sensible proposal, he added.
The PP leader said that no wonder that under the PTI’s provincial government in the Punjab the provincial tax collection has also shown negative growth during the last six months, which will add to the misery of the people of Punjab and increase their migration into Sindh.
