Taking over Sindh’s hospitals is an attack on provincial autonomy: Bilawal

KARACHI (92 News) – Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has strongly condemned the taking over of three key hospitals of Sindh by the Federal government, terming it as an attack on ‘provincial autonomy’. In a statement, the PPP chairman warned that they would protests against this act on every available forum. Bilawal forewarned the government of a possible action against the decision by the people of Sindh. “The people of Sindh have invested billions of rupees on revolutionary improvements in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC). National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Health of Child Health (NICH) after these hospitals were handed over to the province under the 18th amendment,” he said in his statement. “Expansion of NICVD hospitals to several cities of the province has excelled the performance of Sindh government, which paid for expensive cardiac treatments of patients from all over Pakistan,” he added. Bilawal Bhutto said that taking over these main health infrastructures without waiting for the final verdict of the Supreme Court on a review petition filed by Sindh government has displayed the arrogance of the Federal Government and a challenging contempt of the supreme judiciary by PTI government. “An admission by NAB Chairman that he is holding back inquiries of corruption against government ministers to stop its imminent fall and the PTI government’s contempt of court action have exposed the constitutional crisis that the country is currently facing,” the PPP Chairman said. He pointed out that PPP’s Sindh government was spending Rs12.5 billion on NICVD and Rs4 billion to JPMC annually to ensure quality free of cost treatments to patients from all over Pakistan. Sindh government has been providing state of the art health facilities to people from every corner of the country without any charges. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari made it clear that his Party and the people of Sindh wouldn’t allow anyone to usurp the hard-earned assets of health facilities and categorically said that resistance will be mounted at every available forum, warning the Federal government to withdraw the said notification before the public outrage mounted.