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''' '' IMRAN'S -PROUD-
PAKISTAN- IMAAN '' '''
THE STUDENTS AND THE PEOPLE OF PROUD PAKISTAN - should get ready for greater progress in every sphere and emotions of their lives.
From overwhelming and life threatening black-holes, Proud Pakistan is now grappling with only Healthy Problems. The Global Founder Framers, and the people of Proud Pakistan, and I, rise to give this first tier leader, Imran Khan, a resounding standing ovation, and assure him of all our wishes and prayers.
ALMIGHTY GOD FORBID : Imagine your son getting cancer and having to choose between paying for his treatment and selling your only house. This isn't a hypothetical situation. This is a reality of millions of Pakistanis, who must choose between treatment for a sudden, serious illness and their limited assets.
''' An old man from our village, whose daughter needed a liver transplant to save her life, came to me for help a few years ago,'' shares Taimur Jhagra, Finance and Health Minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. ''He needed four million rupees and I still remeber the look in his eyes.''
TODAY, partly inspired by this story, every k-P citizen has been automatically enrolled into universal health insurance, simply based on having a K-P address on their NADRA card.
Forty million people will receive free healthcare of up to Rs 1 million every year in more than 400 hospitals - both public and private. Moreover, the demand created by this health coverage will spur investment by the private sector into health in K-P and will lift the quality of healthcare throughout the province, without the government having to foot the bill for building and running new hospitals.
So, here we have it, a little war-torn province in Pakistan has delivered a universal healthcare system and insurance before many rich and developed countries could achieve the same status.
Even in the most powerful country in the world, - the United States of America, the government refuses to foot the bill for universal healthcare insurance. KP is the first province the country to provide to provide universal health coverage for its residents, with O'' Captain saying that Punjab and Balochistan will follow-
Something which will automatically put pressure on Sindh to lift its game. This is a governance race to the top and it's a beautiful thing for Pakistan. A revolutionary rewriting of the lopsided social contract between the Pakistani state and society.
Pakistani politics, much like Pakistani activism, is often performative. Motorways and metros are visible manifestations that beautifully coverup both acts of omission and commission, while serving as effective talking points before the elections.
Healthcare meanwhile, is an invisible investment in human beings. ''Was the decision to prioritize this painful from a financial point of view for the province? I asked Mr. Jhagra.
''This is about 3 percent of our budget,'' he replied. ''The painful part isn't financial but the idea that if we can do big things like this so quickly, why haven't we done big things like this before as a country?''
The answer to this question has a lot to do with how the media covers governance in Pakistan and generates political capital and rewards. For example, virtually no major prime time TV show or newspaper columnist has done a deep dive into the revolutionary turning point that Pakistan is crossing with universal health insurance.
Instead, they're stuck playing the same bad Bollywood movie, that is Pakistani politics, on repeat. The same characters, the same plots, and the same narratives of musical chairs.
This is the moral equivalent of moral crime because it robs the Pakistani people of the ability to make informed voting choices based on actual governance delivery.
I joked with Mr. Jhagra that people from Karachi and Lahore would now migrate to K-P to get better healthcare, but this is the question our mainstream media should now be asking leaders in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.
If K-P can do it, why can't we? Why can't our mainstream media nurture a culture of rewarding good performance so that political parties can realize that political capital can be gained by performing rather than only taking pot shots at the opposition or opposing the boys?
There's a third way possible to nurture democracy and that is to create a culture of rewarding performances at the ballot box. It's slow, it's unsexy but it's non-violent way to change our system for the better.
Just like the Ramazan moon appears in K-P a day before the rest of the rest of the country, Naya Pakistan's promised 'tabdeeli' appears visible in K-P first. It's not just universal health insurance, the successful billion tree tsunami is another example.
Why is the mainstream media snoozing through these genuine revolutions?
The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research and Writings on Pakistan, continues. The World Students Society thanks author M Bilal Lakhani, a recipient of the James A Wecher Award for International Reporting.
With respectful and loving dedication to the People of Proud Pakistan, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world . See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' Health - Height '''
Good Night and God Bless
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