—Outgoing PML-N govt increased medical facility’s budget to help deserving civilian patients
ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a smart move, the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has considerably increased the recurring budget of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and National Institute of Heart Diseases (AFIC-NIHD), Rawalpindi, from Rs500 million to Rs800 million per annum.
Former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had given approval for increasing the budget of AFIC/NIHD, which is providing free treatment to federal employees.
A summary was issued in this connection from the PM Office, which carried the signature of former secretary to Prime Minister Fawad Hassan Fawad, read, “The Prime Minister has seen and is pleased to observe that increase in number of civilian patients and the quality of services being provided by AFIC and NIHD make it a good case for enhancement of budgetary support.”
“In view thereof, the Prime Minister has been pleased to approve the enhancement of recurring budget of AFIC and NIHD from Rs500 million to Rs800 million per annum to be shared by the Defence and Capital Administration and Development Divisions on equal footing,” the summary added.
The summary also stated that modalities may be settled through mutual consultation among the three divisions. A senior official, while talking to Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity, said that the Rs800 million would be equally shared by the above-mentioned divisions.
He said that Rs400 million would be shared by Defence Divisions while the rest of Rs400 million would be given by the Capital Administration and Development Divisions.
The official further said that earlier, out of the total Rs500 million, an amount of Rs250million of the budgetary allocation was shared by Defence Divisions and Rs250 million by the Capital Administration and Development Divisions.
To a question, he said that civil servants working in the defence ministry would benefit from this move, adding that it was quite astonishing that a good number of civil servants were not even aware of the free treatment facilities provided in AFIC-NIHD, due to which they did not take advantage of the facility in the past.