'Sehat Insaf Cards distributed among Gujranwala, Sialkot people'

GUJRANWALA: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has said that Sehat Insaf Cards have been distributed among the citizens of Gujranwala and Sialkot which will facilitate 430,836 families for availing free medical treatment in both cities, ARY News reported on Friday.

While addressing a distribution ceremony of Sehat Insaf Cards, Dr Zafar Mirza said the government has fulfilled its promises with the citizens as 265,641 families in Gujranwala and 165,195 in Sialkot will get free medical treatment facilities under the scheme.

The special assistant said a common man could avail treatment facilities worth up to 720,000 through the health card. He detailed that the health cards have been distributed in 32 districts of Punjab province and 300 hospitals across the country are listed in the panel under the programme.

Read: Govt makes progress on expanding Sehat Insaf Card scheme

He said the main purpose of the healthcare programme is to provide financial security to a poor man in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan who wants to transform Pakistan into a welfare state.

Earlier on January 1, Dr Zafar Mirza, had announced the healthcare targets of 2020 set by Pakistan including polio eradication, disposal syringes and issuance of health insurance cards.

Dr Zafar Mirza, in his statement to the media, said the country was facing a decline in social sectors due to economic deficit in 2019 while the federal government had paid complete attention to its healthcare vision.

The special assistant said the government had not only issued health insurance [Sehat Insaf] cards but also expanded its scope to other parts of the country by providing it to all needy families till December 2019.

Read: Transgender community to get Sehat Insaf Cards, decides government

The next target is to provide the facility to half of the overall population of Pakistan by December 2020, he added.

Commenting over polio virus, Mirza detailed that cases had been reduced to 8 in 2017 but it was increased at the beginning of 2018 while 19 new cases were reported in 2019 including the majority of affected children from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

He further said the health ministry had reached 400 million children for anti-polio vaccination. Mirza expressed hopes for achieving targets in December 2020 for polio-free Pakistan. He vowed the authorities will eradicate disposal syringe till June 2020 by introducing auto-disable syringes which cannot be reused.