According to the 2022-23 Public Sector Development Programme documents, the national health services ministry will receive only Rs14 billion in the next financial year, compared to Rs21.7 billion this year, as the multilateral lender IMF sets tough conditions for the bailout revival desperately sought by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration to fill ’empty’ public coffers.
The annual budget for Islamabad’s PIMS and Polyclinic, the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the National Institute of Health, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS programmes, and other federal health subjects in the post-devolution regime is less than 1% of GDP, compared to the World Health Organization’s target of 6%.
According to the next PSDP, which will be unveiled in the National Assembly tomorrow (Friday), nearly 84 percent of the health budget, or Rs11.727 billion, will go to 31 ongoing projects, including a pitiful aid of Rs56.58 million, while only Rs2.272 billion, including Rs44.5 million in foreign assistance, will go to 11 new ones.
