FAISALABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said the ‘dacoit leaders’ of the Opposition parties, who had looted the national exchequer during their tenures, had ganged up in a fear of getting sentenced on their cases of corruption.
“The opposition leaders, who had earlier boasted to ‘tear up each other’s bellies to recover looted money have now joined hands before any verdict is announced on their pending corruption cases,” he said, in his address here at the launch of National Health Card Programme in Faisalabad Division.
Imran Khan said his undeterred stance against corruption had put the Opposition in a haste to save the corrupt mafia.
He mentioned that former President Asif Ali Zardari had emerged in the scene with a ‘cheque book to buy loyalties of other parties’.
“This is a loud and clear message to all corrupt leaders that I will continue to fight against them,” he said, adding that the country could not prosper until the weak and powerful was equally treated before the law.
He said he had joined politics 25 years ago to wage a war against corrupt people and vowed to ensure rule of law in the country.
He quoted the saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) who had said that many earlier nations were destroyed where there was one law for the powerful and another for the weak.
The prime minister said the foundation of prosperity and development of a nation was closely linked with rule of law.
Imran Khan said previous rulers of the country used to visit abroad ‘even for the treatment of their cough’, but showed apathy towards the improvement of the health system for the people.
Referring to the criticism of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on the government’s national health card scheme, he said his party in its tenure remained incapable of bringing development in Sindh.
“He [Bilawal] now says that they will spend on hospitals rather than the health cards. But, who stopped them during their over 13-year rule to take such steps for the facilitation of common man,” he questioned.
He said such corrupt leaders looted money from the national exchequer and transferred it into the accounts of other persons to hide their crime.
He said the national health card programme was in line with the vision of Islam’s first socio-welfare State of Medina that cared for the common man.
He said the programme was launched to accommodate the people in view of the expensive medical treatment that put an immense burden on them.
He said the population ratio of doctors and nurses in Pakistan was very less compared with the rest of the world.
The prime minister lauded Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, health minister Dr Yasmin and their team on the launch of the health insurance scheme.
He said besides providing health facilities to women, the government would also ensure their right of inheritance.
About his recent visit to China, he said progress on industrialization was in top focus under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and expressed confidence that it would boost trade activity in the country.
Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar said around 1.5 million people of Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh and Chiniot would benefit from the programme. He said after its launch in Faisalabad Division, about 73 percent of households of Punjab would be able to avail the facility.
State Minister for Information Farrukh Habib said the government’s national health card was a revolutionary programme providing free medical treatment facilities up to Rs. 1 million per family annually at selected public and private hospitals.
Apart from Punjab, the national health card programme have so far been launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Tharparkar district, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
