Punjab health department fails to meet development targets, PMA raises alarm

 The failure of Punjab's two key health departments to meet their own development targets has sparked serious concerns about the performance of the bureaucracy. 

This was the crux of the discussion of an emergency meeting of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Lahore held on Wednesday. 

The meeting was chaired by its PMA president Dr Shahid Malik and attended by Prof Dr Ashraf Nizami, Dr Arum Shehzadi, Dr Wajid Ali, Dr Bushra Haq, Dr Izhar Chaudhry, Dr Kamran Saeed, Dr Tanveer Anwar, Prof Dr Javed Chaudhry, Dr Nadir Khan, Dr Ahmad Naeem Akhtar, and Dr Maryam Fatima. 

The participants expressed deep concern over the latest financial report for the third fiscal quarter, presented in the Punjab Assembly. 

According to the report, none of the provincial departments were able to achieve their set development goals. 

Out of a total of Rs. 448 billion released to various departments during the quarter, only Rs. 335 billion were actually utilized.

The PMA officials particularly criticized the performance of the two health departments, which received an allocation of approximately Rs 2 billion but managed to spend only around Rs 1.25 billion.

 This underutilization of funds, they said, is a stark example of bureaucratic inefficiency and mismanagement, especially in a sector as critical as healthcare.

The PMA called for urgent reforms and accountability measures to address the glaring gaps in resource utilization and to ensure that public funds are effectively used for the welfare of the people.