Leaders
of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have vowed to turn Pakistan into a welfare
state.  They said, PTI is the only political party to present
comprehensive polices in various sectors addressing critical challenges facing
Pakistan.

They
were deliberating at a seminar held to discuss policies of Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) under the title “Relevance of Manifesto in Political
Dynamics of Pakistan” here on Monday. The event organized by Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI) was second in the series of seminars,
planned to bring manifestos of political parties into discussion and their
impact on electorates in the run up to the general elections.

Giving
introductory remarks, Dr. Abid Q. Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI lamented the
lack of ‘issue based debate’ in political discourse and said that in run-up to
general election, the political debate must be centered around manifestos,
policies and how the political parties would deliver on their promises.

Speaking
on the occasion, Dr Humayun Mohamand, Head, International Chapter, Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) presented the five point health agenda of the the party
and said, PTI policy aspire to shift health paradigm from cure to prevention
regime.  He informed that PTI in 5 years, would gradually increase public
health funding from 0.8 percent of GDP to 2.6 percent per year which is an
increase of Rs. 165 billion today to Rs. 1,260 billion. Giving details, he elaborated
that PTI has planned to create a fiscal space of 9 percent of GDP through cut
in expenditures, increase in taxation and reforms and hence the fiscal space
created would be spent on social sector development including health and
education.

The
other main feature of policy is the complete decentralization and
de-politicization of health governance with a special prioritization on
‘primary healthcare’, ‘mother and child care’ and ‘school health program’. He
also announced to create ‘Health Equity Fund’ to pay for the treatment of
catastrophic illness of the Poorest of the Poor. Talking of use of technology,
he expressed that PTI would develop a reliable and integrated ‘health
information system’ for evidence based planning and decision making.

Ahmad
Jawad, Deputy Secretary Information of PTI talked radical reform program of the
party and said that five-pillar emergency reform program of PTI focusing on
‘Energy Reforms’, ‘Institutional Reforms’, ‘Expenditure Reforms’,  ‘Tax
Reforms’ and ‘Education & Health reforms’ would not only address the
critical challenges facing Pakistan but would also deliver to the aspiration of
people of Pakistan. 

He
said the PTI would introduce alternate energy resources along with introduction
of coal for power generation to solve energy crisis and reduce circular debt.
Speaking on institutional reforms, he said his party would introduce result and
outcome based system for bureaucracy in Pakistan. He also shared outline of PTI
rural governance system, organized to manage by village councils throughout the
country.

Speaking
as discussant, Khalid Jamil, Executive Director, Journalist for Democracy and
Human Rights (JDHR) raised question on huge resources required for
implementation of education and health policies. These gigantic allocations are
commendable but resource mobilization to materialize them seems to be difficult
and needs careful reconsideration, he added.