Imran Khan slams Punjab caretaker govt for ceasing health card program
The former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday lashed out at the incumbent caretaker government in Punjab for axing the health card program - the flagship initiative of the PTI regime - in Punjab.
Addressing scholars via video link from his Lahore residence, he said that Pakistan cannot progress with dual standards of law.
He said that the PTI government launched the health card program to give health coverage to middle and lower-middle classes who get buried in debt if an individual contracts a disease.
PTI chairman noted that the program under which a poor person could get treatment from a private hospital was lauded by international bodies.
He said that due to the program, the private hospitals were ready to establish healthcare centers in the rural areas however everything has stopped now.
The ex-premier negated that there was an impression that it was necessary to generate money first before doing things for the underprivileged class like a welfare state. However, he stated that the truth was the exact opposite
He laid down the importance of establishing a just system in society, terming it necessary for unleashing the true potential of its people.
Imran said that the West was prosperous because of rule of law on the land.
He said that everybody witnessed the ‘circus’ in Pakistan where the opponents were being framed in fake cases and put in jail.
The former premier claimed that the government didn’t want to hold elections in the country within 90 days which was the stipulated time in the Constitution. “Look at the circus in Pakistan,” he said of the situation.
“They [government] says that it has no money to hold the polls which is a contravention of the Constitution,” he said.
PTI chairman noted that the powerful people in Pakistan get NRO while comparing it with the West where the powerful people were ‘easiest’ to catch if they were corrupt.
He reiterated that his government wanted to improve relations with Russia while criticizing that in the past; such foreign policies were designed which ‘please’ other countries rather than Pakistan.
Continuing his diatribe against the former army chief General (retired) Qamar Bajwa, Imran Khan claimed that the ex-military chief asked him to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
“I said that India did not do that. We should stay neutral like India,” he continued and said that General (retd) Bajwa arbitrarily condemned the Russian attack during an international security dialogue just to please the US.
Earlier in his address, the ex-PM noted that people get most of their education in English, but it was not appropriate to become a ‘mental slave’ of the West.
He said that such a mindset loses the ability to produce things on its own.
