ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to issue Sehat Cards to permanent residents of Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The decision was taken in the meeting of the National Steering Committee on Sehat Sahulat Program here on Wednesday, which was chaired by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan while Provincial Minister for Health Punjab Dr Yasmeen Rashid also participated in the session via video link.
Addressing on the occasion, Dr Faisal Sultan said that the government was striving to take practical steps for ensuring universal health coverage in the country.
He said that around 258,000 families will be able to avail health facilities through health cards in the federal capital while 328,000 families in Gilgit Baltistan will have free health facilities under health card.
He said that the government will make the federal capital a model city with regard to health facilities.
Dr Faisal said that around 16 million families were getting facilities under health card across the country. He added the population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Tharparkar was also getting health services under universal health coverage.
He said that the government will issue health cards to all permanent residents of seven districts of Punjab within the next two months including Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Okara and Muzaffargarh. He added the remaining districts will be issued health cards by December this year.