More than 20 Punjab Assembly legislators have announced to form a cross-party parliamentary caucus on health to resolve health related issues of the province.
The announcement in this regard was made at the concluding session of the consultative meeting of `Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition’ organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in coordination with EVA-BHN here on Wednesday.
MPAs Dr Nosheen Khalid, Abdul Razaq Dhilon, Awais Qasim and Najma Afzal while representing other parliamentarians present at the session, announced the formulation of the provincial parliamentary caucus on health.
MPA Dr Najma Afzal said that introducing necessary legislation and improved implementation on existing policies would be the top priority of this shared platform.
She said that lawmakers of the caucus on health would work on budgetary recommendations while demanding more allocations for the health sector.
Dr Nosheen Khalid said that working together for a common cause and to provide better health facilities to people of the province would be a matter of pride for all the members of the caucus.
MPA Abdul Razaq Dhilon said that the parliamentarians in Punjab Assembly would raise genuine demands of people at grass-roots level during the parliamentary sessions.
Earlier while addressing the session, SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Qayyum Sulehry said that substandard health facilities, malnutrition, and a lack of drinking water were a contributing factor behind the low IQ level of children.
He said health problems should be dealt with using multiple approaches, and that the private sector would also need to play its role to improve the health facilities of the province.
In his address, Lahore Metropolitan Deputy Mayor Ejaz Hafeez welcomed the step and said that the parliamentary caucus was needed to raise the genuine healthcare demands of the people.
