KP CM terms Sehat Sahulat Program as pro-poor scheme

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has termed the social health protection scheme (Sehat Sahulat Program) as a flagship and pro-poor scheme of the provincial government and said that, this project is another important step towards Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision of a welfare state.

He was addressing a public gathering in Grassy Ground; district Swat on Friday where Prime Minister Imran Khan formally launched the extension of Sehat Sahulat Program to the 100 percent population of the province.

He said that this project would prove to be a milestone in ensuring the provision of free and quality health care facilities to the entire population of the province adding that the said project is a complete package of social protection which, besides ensuring free treatment facilities to the masses, would help reduce poverty and improve living standard of common man.

The chief minister said that this program would be expanded to whole province by the end of January next year in four different phases. “' In first phase, Sehat Sahulat Program has been extended to Swat, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Malakand, Upper Dir, Lower Dir.

In second phase, it will be extended to Shangla, Kohistan, Battagram, Mansehra, Tor Ghar and Bunir districts by the next month. Similarly, the project will cover the rest of districts by the January next year,”' he added.

The Chief Minister further stated that through the extension of program to the whole population of the province, more than six million households would get free healthcare facilities and each household would have the facility to get free treatment upto Rs. 1.0 million annually.

“Each and every individual of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa holding national identity card could get free medical treatment in the selected public and private hospitals,” he remarked.

Highlighting the developmental strategy of the provincial government, Mahmood Khan said that work on various mega developmental projects in the province was in progress whereas multiple developmental schemes would also be launched in the coming days.

Phase-I of the Swat Motorway project had already been completed and work on the phase-II of Swat Motorway would be started very soon, he said.

Similarly, he said that progress was underway on different mega projects in communication sector including D.I Khan Motorway, Dir Expressway, Chitral Expressway, Shangla-Bishaam Expressway and Peshawar to Torkham Expressway.

On the completion of these mega projects, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would emerge as hub of trade and economic activities in the region.