LAHORE:
Punjab’s healthcare system has allegedly swung from universal coverage to widespread collapse within just seven years, according to a new white paper contrasting the reform-heavy tenure of the PTI with what it calls the regressive policies of the PML-N.
Titled Healing Punjab: Healthcare Reforms, Reversals, and the Road to Recovery (2018-2025), the report — co-authored by former health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and researcher Shayan Bashir — is set to be unveiled on Monday.
It argues that PTI’s 2018-22 reforms delivered Punjab’s strongest-ever public health system, while subsequent reversals since 2023 have left millions vulnerable, a collapse laid bare by this year’s devastating floods.
Between 2018 and 2022, the PTI rolled out the Sehat Sahulat Card, providing health insurance of up to Rs1 million annually to 29.3 million families.
More than 900 hospitals, including 654 private facilities, were empanelled, and government hospitals earned Rs10 billion in 2021-22 through the scheme. According to the paper, 4.2 million families received treatment under the programme, which enjoyed a 98% satisfaction rate.
The PTI government also recruited 33,000 health workers, upgraded 42 nursing schools, and deployed 200 anaesthetists to district hospitals. Over 1,200 Basic Health Units (BHUs) were converted into 24/7 facilities, six new mother and child hospitals were launched.
It said the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) became Pakistan’s first JCI-accredited public hospital after performing more than 1,700 transplants while preventive efforts raised immunisation to 92% by 2021 with Punjab’s COVID-19 response winning praise from the WHO and international media.
In sharp contrast, the report accuses the PML-N government of dismantling this system. The Sehat Card was suspended in June 2025, stripping 29 million families of health protection.
The private hospital network shrank from 654 to 155, dialysis costs rose to Rs5,500 per session, and over 2,000 BHUs and RHCs were outsourced as “Maryam Nawaz Clinics,” many of which reportedly lacked doctors or medicines. The dismissal of 12,500 IRMNCH staff further eroded frontline care.
Governance failures, the paper claims, deepened the crisis.
The Auditor General of Pakistan flagged Rs1 trillion in irregularities, Rs43 billion in procurement scams were unearthed, and counterfeit medicines infiltrated supply chains. Maternal mortality stagnated at 157 per 100,000 live births, while child immunisation slipped to 89%.
The 2025 floods, which displaced two million people, exposed this fragility. Amid cholera, dengue, and malaria outbreaks, Punjab’s weakened system collapsed just when citizens most needed it.
The authors urge policymakers to reinstate and expand the Sehat Card, reverse outsourcing, rehire frontline staff, digitise procurement, and integrate climate resilience into healthcare. “Healthcare is disaster preparedness,” the report concludes. “Systems dismantled in calmer years collapse in crisis.”
