LAHORE: Incarcerated PTI leader Dr Yasmin Rashid says Maryam Nawaz government`s health initiatives suggest that she has not been briefed properly by bureaucrats.

In an open letter addressed to former premier and PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday, Dr Rashid citing a newspaper headline asked whether he had been given the permission by the establishment to `roar` and deny permission to PTI to lodge protest. `Mr Sharif should not roar too much and be careful as it may jeopardise her daughter`s future,` she stated.

Former health minister, Dr Rashid wrote that she wanted to inform the PML-N chief about the health initiatives taken by the PTI government so that he could properly advise her daughter, as bureaucrats around her were keeping her in the dark.

She stated the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute became fully functional in the PTI`s tenure and more than 800 liver trans-plants and over 900 kidney transplants had already been performed, including 70 per cent operations free of cost. `Even the bone marrow transplant was started when Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was the chief minister,` she stated and added 15 such transplants were done beside the first `cadavar transplant` performed in the PTI government`s tenure.

Stating that the PKLI was the only JCI (Joint Commission International) approved public sector hospital, she acknowledged that it was the brainchild of Shehbaz Sharif and she looked after the institute with complete sincerity. `Now I am keen to know what new facility your daughter is planning to give to the people of Punjab,` she said.

Dr Rashid said the mobile hospitals were made functional for slums in her tenure in NA-130 for pe ople living in Bund Road area.

She said the mobile hospitals were fully functional during Covid and were used for vaccination. `However, we never had our pictures pasted on it,` she commented.

According to her, the first Health Sector Strategy 2018-2028, an evidence-based pol-icy document, was published in Feb 2019, urging Mr Sharif to advise his daughter to read the document. `All steps taken afterwards were based on that document.

She said the Sehat Insaf Card was launched in Jan 2019 under the universal health coverage chapter of the document.

`You must agree that it was PTI founder chairman Imran Khan`s initiative, you followed it later in Islamabad and then your daughter messed it up.

She said Mr Sharif might remember his daughter`s audio leak conversation with her uncle saying that `we must finish this card` and added that when she left her office, 4.2 million families had already utilised the cards with 98 per cent satisfaction according to a third-party evaluation.

She stated that dialysis was a part of it and now she was projecting her as Dialysis Card.

Dr Rashid said mother and child hospitals were established all over Punjab to achieve SDG goals. She hoped that more such hospitals had been made functional as they were near completion when she left theoffice. She said a new hospital, Nishtar-II, was given to Multan and it was not named after Imran Khan, the then prime minister.

Similarly, a new cardiology hospital was given to D.G. Khan and Rahim Yar Khan was given a second General Hospital with satellite units.

Dr Rashid stated that the development of human resources was the most important part of the document all 42 nursing schools were upgraded as nursing colleges, so that the nurses get a degree at par with the rest of the world. The seats in those colleges were increased from 1400 to 3200 and their stipend increased from Rs21,000 to Rs31,000. `All mother and child hospitals have a provision of nursing college,` she said and added that the first male nursing college was established at the Shahdra Hospital. The first class should be graduating now.

The jailed former health minister stated more than 33,000 health professionals including doctors, nurses, technologists, pharmacists were recruited on merit through the Punjab Public ServiceCommission and NTS.

Dr Rashid said under the preventive work at primary healthcare level, 92 per cent immunisation was accomplished by year 2021much before the WHO timeline of 2022.

`The fight put up against Covid was appreciated all over the world as Punjab led the battle and got an appreciation certificate from the WHO,` she said and added that the smart lockdowns were Imran Khan`s brainchild to save the daily wagers from starvation.

She said over 200 anaesthetists were trained to make all DHQs functional and RHCs as well as BHUs were upgraded.

Dr Rashid also wrote that the Punjab government developed the first Child University in Asia to do indigenous research.

`I have given you the important points and if you need any further information, I am available 24 hours at Kot Lakhpat Jail,` she stated and asserted that work must be done seriously for the people of Pakistan.