Category Archives: Health

Health care for all: empty slogan

Archive Edition, Development and Poverty, Health, Human Rights

By Zubeida Mustafa

“Healthcare for all” s been proclaimed to be the focal point of the Prime Minister’s five point programme. The Government claims that by i990 every Pakistani will be provided access to health facility so that none will have to undergo needless pain and suffering should he fall ill.

No one would dispute the nobility of this goal. But given the present trends one feels sceptical whether the government will succeed in achieving its objective. The hurdles are numerous and the efforts not substantial enough.

Take the case of Mohammad Khan. His experience shows we still have a long, long way to go in providing healthcare for the rural areas. This is what he has to say: Continue reading Health care for all: empty slogan →

The social sector: What the budget was likely to achieve

Administration, Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, Health, Housing, Human Rights, Labour, Population, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE Federal Finance Minister has described Budget 1986-87 as being designed to provide relief to all sections of society in need of it.

Although there is greater emphasis on the social sectors and on welfare measures than before — their allocation having risen from 12 per cent of the budget in 1982-83 to 20 per cent in 1986-87 — the increase has been less than what was envisaged in the Sixth Plan. Continue reading The social sector: What the budget was likely to achieve →

A new stirring in rural Sind

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Culture and the Arts, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, Health, Library, Population, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE villages of Sind are experiencing a new awakening. The people — both men and women — in rural areas of the province are developing a keen awareness of their deprivation and backwardness. Gone are the centuries old fatalism, complacency and submissiveness of yore. The people now want a change and more significantly they are prepared to work for it on a selfhelp basis. Continue reading A new stirring in rural Sind →

FBS survey:Health cover inadequate

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Health

By Zubeida Mustafa

THE PICTURE of the health sector as it emerges from the Federal Bureau of Statistics recently released report bodes ill for the country’s economic and social development.

This sector has traditionally been one of the most neglected ones although the state of the people’s health has a direct bearing on productivity, economic development and the cost of providing medical cover.

It is patent that the output of a sickly population is low as compared with that of a healthy people — more man-hours are lost because of illness, more people are required to maintain a given level of production and the expenditure on providing Continue reading FBS survey:Health cover inadequate →

Larger allocations to help education and health sectors

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights, Population, Social Issues, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

AN UNUSUAL feature of the Federal Finance Minister’s budget speech on Thursday was the emphasis he placed on the need to develop the social sector in Pakistan, especially education.

His professed concern at the poor state of this sector was expressed in the shape of enormous increases in allocations for some of the social sector items in the Budget.

This is significant, given the poor performance of the Government in the fields of health and education — none of the Sixth Plan targets in these fields could be met in the first two years.

It has been clear that the major factor responsible for this state of affairs has been the paucity of resources made available to the social sector. In terms of budgetary allocations, the pace of implementation of the Sixth Plan has also been painfully slow. Only 23 per cent of the planned amount was spent on education and 27 per cent on health in the first two years of the Sixth Plan period. Continue reading Larger allocations to help education and health sectors →