ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):As of January 31, 2018, more than 1,655,657 families have been enrolled in Prime Minister’s National Health Programme and more than 56,000 families have been treated for various illnesses from 125 empanelled hospitals across Pakistan.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan released by Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail here Thursday, there is also an option of inter district portability in the programme which enables the enrolled beneficiaries and families to access quality indoor hospital services from any empaneled hospital, both in public and private sector.
Prime Minister’s Health Programme is a social protection initiative to provide financial protection cover to all people in phases and the data of the Benazir Income Support Progamme will be used in this regard.
Under this programme, provision of free of cost health insurance to 3.2 million families (in Punjab, Balochistan and FATA in its two phases) living below poverty line of US$2 per day to access cashless healthcare services package of 0.3 million rupees per family per year was available in both public and private sector through a health card issued by a highly transparent mechanism.
Thousands of poor patients have been benefited from the treatment facilities including deliveries, cardiac surgeries, cancer and other major diseases in best private and government hospitals in their districts without spending a single rupee.
The National TB Control programme (NTP) has achieved over 80 percent Directly Observed Treatment System (DOTS) coverage in public sector and in the last five years the programme has provided care to more than half a million TB patients. The programme is moving steadily to achieve the global targets of 70 percent case detection.
Lady Health Workers (LHWs) services have visible impact on the health status of women and children in particular through improved hygiene, birth spacing, iron supplementation, greater immunization coverage and through a 106,000 (LHWs).
The total population covered under this programme spread over 60 percent in Balochistan, more than 80 percent in Punjab, 65 percent in Sindh and 60 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The target for fiscal year 2017-18 is 4,000 hospital beds, 5,000 new doctors, 700 dentists, 4,000 Nurses, 5,000 paramedics and 1,000 Traditional Birth Attendants and 8,000 LHWs.
Under the preventive programme, about 8 million children will be immunized and 25 million packets of ORS will be distributed during 2017-18.
The government is dedicated to increase the health coverage to meet the growing demand of increasing population.
Health outcomes have improved over the years but some critical weakness include shortage of equipment and staff that continues to affect health system.
There is a dire need to expand services delivery and address the shortfall in health related human resources and making better use of technology. Public private partnership is needed to be encouraged and coverage of public health programmes like TB, Malaria, Hepatitis and other communicable diseases need to be expanded.
Pakistan dietary guidelines for better nutrition (PDGN) has been prepared to provide nutrition information for healthy living to the masses. Food Composition Table (FCT) for 350 raw and cooked food items with 25 nutrients based on data from 12 agro zones is under preparation.
Task force for Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been established and Letter of Intent (LOI) is signed nutrition partner to formulate National Policy Framework.
Pakistan Food Fortification Strategy has been revised to take up sustained actions to overcome micronutrient deficiencies (hidden hunger).

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP):The government has devised projects for provision of next generation broadband and telephony across the country in the next fiscal year to connect the unconnected in the unserved and underserved areas.
The projects would be executed through the Universal Service Fund (USF), in collaboration with Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoIT & T) focusing on minimizing the information and communication gap between rural and urban communities.
Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismial while addressing a press conference to announce Economic Survey of Pakistan 2017-18, here on Thursday said, till date about 6,400 kms of optic fiber cable (OFC) has been laid and 79 THQs and towns have been provided with the connectivity.
This year the USF has successfully launched a project to provide connectivity to 35 unserved THQs and towns in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Contract has been signed and Rs800 million have been allocated for this project. One such initiative is to provide next generation broadband and telephony coverage along the unserved route of national motorways and highways, including segments of Pak China Economic Corridor and major roads which have national significance and high demand by the travelers across Pakistan.
It is estimated that around 7,700 kms of routes are unserved and at least Rs18 billion will be required to provide this coverage.
The USF is also working on new projects where existing infrastructure providing 2G and WLL services under USF BSD projects will be upgraded to provide next generation broadband services thereby expanding connectivity and coverage to the whole of the country with respect to high speed broadband.
For already running projects under USF Broadband for Sustainable Development (BSD) Programme during current financial year, 191 mauzas have been provided with telephony and mobile internet services including 7 projects under its Broadband for Sustainable Development Programme.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):Women constitute about 49 % of country’s population while Vision 2025 includes Gender Equality and Women Development as an important element and recognizes as key contributor to the country’s economic future.
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2017-18 launched by Adviser to the Prime Minister
on Finance, Miftah Ismail here Thursday said that Pakistan is committed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including the Goal-5 i.e. Gender Equality and Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
He said that the government has internalized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as National Goals.
The participation of women in the development process of Pakistan has been recognized as an important element. The indicators of women development are gradually improving but not yet sufficient
to achieve gender parity that remains elusive in school enrollment, labour market share and in decision making arena, he added.
The government, he said, is well aware of this issue and is making sincere efforts to provide an enabling environment and equal opportunities to women so that they may enjoy the benefits of
economic growth, prosperity and social development.
Miftah claimed that initiatives have been taken for women development and empowerment. He
said as a result, women’s employment is encouraged and the government has fixed 10 percent quota
for women in public sector employment; Punjab raised this to 15 percent and in Sindh job quota for women in police has been increased from 2 percent to 5 percent.
He said that 184 posts for women have been created at different tiers, and 70 percent of jobs in primary education have been earmarked for women.
He informed that Punjab Fair Representation of Women Act 2014 ensures 33 percent
representation of women on all boards of statutory bodies, public sector companies etc, adding women participation in Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Schemes was encouraged by 50 percent.
Miftah said Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), a flagship social protection programme
of the government is providing social assistance to women. BISP also gives interest free financial assistance to the female beneficiaries under their Waseela-e-Haq (Micro-Finance) programme to
start their own business, he said.
He said Vocational and technical training of one month to a year’s duration, to the female beneficiary or her nominee has been provided under the Waseela-e-Rozgar (Technical & VocationalTraining) programme (target is 150,000 beneficiaries) with Rs 6,000 monthly stipend for
each trainee.
Waseela –e-Sehat (Life and Health Insurance) programme subsidized health care for
beneficiaries and life insurance to one million women while the premium is paid by the program, he added.
Waseela-e-Taleem (Primary Education), he said, encourage the beneficiaries families to send
their children of 5-12 years age to school through a co-responsibility cash transfer of Rs 200/- per child (limit to three per family).
He said that the government has taken measures to ensure women’s rights as envisaged in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Acknowledging ‘Honor Killings” as a critical problem, he said, the present government has enacted effective legislation to address women’s issues with a view to safeguard their rights i.e. “Criminal Law (Amendment) Offences in the name or pretext of Honour Act, 2016” and “Criminal Law (Amendment) Offences Relating to Rape, Act 2016”.
He claimed that several institutions have contributed in securing and promoting women’s rights and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) is one of them. He said the NCSW has prepared a comprehensive roadmap defining goals, priorities and strategies for empowerment of the women with special focus on issues of home based/informal sector workers and their inclusion in the labour force, affirmative actions for reservation of quotas in the government jobs including minority communities and initiatives for legislation.
He said that the present government has taken various steps to achieve women’s empowerment through awareness raising campaigns and allocation of budget. Funds amounting to Rs 254 million, he said, have been allocated in PSDP 2017-18 to four new development schemes of Ministry of Human Rights including Implementation of Action Plan for Human Rights in Pakistan, Institutional strengthening of Ministry of Human Rights, Acquisition of land for construction of building for National Institute of Human Rights and Construction of working women hostel in Islamabad.
He further said that in addition to that an amount of Rs 52 million has been allocated for two ongoing development schemes of Ministry of Human Rights i.e. Helpline for legal advice on violations of human rights with an allocation of Rs 25 million and establishment of National Institute of Human Rights with an allocation of Rs 27 million.
He said the government in order to promote innovative ideas based on business plans leading to solution of social problems has established a Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at a cost of Rs178.43 million focusing on women entrepreneurship. The project is unique in nature for addressing social issues through innovative business plans and women are especially encouraged to grow as an entrepreneur, he added.
He said Prime Minister’s Youth Programme is a revolutionary programme of the government for the socio-economic development of youth to combat unemployment in the country. The main objective, he said, of the scheme is to enable youth and poor segments of population, to get good employment opportunities, secure economic empowerment, acquire skills to improve their livelihood, have access to higher education and IT tools and provision of opportunity on-the-job training/internship for young graduates to improve the probability of getting a productive job.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The industrial sector of the country showed a growth of 5.80 percent provisionally on the back of
growth of mining and quarrying percent of 3.04 percent compared to negative growth of 0.38 percent last year.
According to the Economic Survey for fiscal 2017-18 released Thursday, the production of coal and lime stone increased by 5.7 percent and 13.4 percent and bauxites 37.2 percent.
Manufacturing grew by 6.24 percent compared to 5.82 percent last year. In manufacturing, LSM registered a growth of 6.13 percent compared to 5.62 percent last year.
The major contributor to this growth are petroleum products which increased by 10.26 percent, cement 11.05 percent, automobile 19.5 percent, iron and steel products 13.85 percent and electronics 38.79 percent while SME maintained the growth of last year percent and slaughtering also maintained
the growth of last year, i.e., 3.52 percent.
Services sector has witnessed a growth of 6 percent for last two consecutive years. The reason is that in Pakistan, services sector has still great potential to grow and the government is making best
efforts to provide enabling environment top economic agents to tap its potential. Therefore the performance of the services sector remained broad based as all of the components of services sector contributed positively.
Electricity generation and gas distribution witnessed a low growth of 1.84 percent compared to
the higher growth of 5.8 percent last year whereas the construction activities increased by
9.13 percent.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The gross earning of Pakistan Railways during July-Dec 2017-18 has increased by 26.7 per cent as against the same period of preceding year.
According to Economic Survey of Pakistan 2017-18 unveiled by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance here Thursday, the number of passenger carried, freight carried and freight earning has also improved by 4.7 percent, 55.8 percent and 62.1 percent respectively over the corresponding period of last year.
Pakistan Railways is to undertake necessary steps to increase its share in the overall transport sector of Pakistan from 4 percent to 20 percent.
Meanwhile Ministry of Railways has also prepared Pakistan Railway Strategic Plan (PRSP) to operationalize the targets set in the vision which would provide a long term framework for railway sector development Improve availability of locomotives through special repair of existing locomotives and procurement of new locomotives.
Quetta-Taftan Railway line is an important section of railway network in the context of regional connectivity with Europe through Iran and Turkey and tapping the mineral potential of Balochistan.
In addition, extension of ML-III (Quetta-Bostan-Zhob-D.I Khan section) will provide important connection for transportation of freight and passengers between North and South of the country. A feasibility study for up-gradation of ML under process.

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP):Automobile sector recorded a growth at 19.58 percent in July-February Fiscal Year 2018 and its sub sector such as tractors 44.68 percent, trucks 24.41percent, jeeps and cars 23.29 percent, LCVs 19.73 percent and motor cycles 14.15 percent.
According the Economic Survey 2017-18, during the period from July-February 2018, buses production posted a negative growth of 39.35 percent.
The sector will gain more growth due to entry of new variants such as Hyundai, Renault, Nissan, coupled with rapidly growing ride hailing services like Careem and Uber, it added.
The automobile industry sales during the first eight months (July to February) of fiscal year 2017-18 exhibited 23 percent growth. Tractors sales during the period recorded at 39.5 percent, buses and trucks15.4 percent and motorcycles and three wheelers 17.7 percent.
In light of ongoing infrastructural undertakings in the country, the auto sector looks primed for another healthy performance. The imposition of regulatory duties on the automobile sector is expected to create a favorable situation during the year as it may further enhance domestic production.

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP):A total of Rs8,176.06 million was allocated in 2017-18 for Population Welfare Programme in Punjab,
Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit – Baltistan, AJK, and FATA.
According to Economic Survey released by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail, the Population Welfare Programmes are being executed by the Population Welfare Departments of the provinces and the federal government is supporting the provinces in allocating significant funding through Federal Public Sector Development Programs.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The share of the services sector reached 59.59% of GDP in Fiscal Year 2017 and witnessed a growth of 5.98 percent as compared to 5.55% previous year.
According to Economic Survey 2017-18 released here on Thursday, the Performance of services sector remained broad based, as all components of services contributed significantly in positive term, as Wholesale and Retail Trade grew by 6.82 percent, Transport, Storage and Communication by 3.94 percent, Finance and Insurance by 10.77 percent, Housing Services by 3.99 percent, General Government Services by 6.91 percent and Other Private Services by 6.28 percent.
Services sector has also surpassed the planned target and has emerged as the most significant driver of economic growth and is contributing a major role in augmenting and sustaining economic growth in the country.
In Pakistan services sector also has a great potential to grow and the government is making best efforts to provide enabling environment to economic agents to tap its potential.
The performance of services sector has been better as compared to commodity producing sector for quite some time. This trend is continued in FY 2017 and services sector grew at 5.98 percent against the commodity producing sector growth of 4.26 percent.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) has trained over 200 persons to conduct assessment of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) from ICT, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Baluchistan, AJK & GB region.
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan released by Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Miftah Ismail here Thursday, NAVTTC, keeping in view the reforms agenda of the Government- Vision 2025, has taken the initiative of new and innovative practices.
Such practices are encouraging linkages with the informal sector by providing assessment and certification opportunities to the skilled and semi-skilled workers under Pakistan’s NVQF.
These assessors are also included in the National Pool of Assessors which are further utilized by
Qualification Awarding Bodies (QABs), Provincial Trade Testing Boards (PTTB) for final assessment of TVET trainees.
This programme bridges the gap between formal and informal sectors by allowing the recognition and certification of skills through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) that may have been gained through life experiences and employment in informal or non-formal sectors.
RPL uses a very simple and straightforward approach for assessing one’s knowledge and skills, regardless where and how these were learnt.
RPL is accessible to any people who possess the requisite knowledge and skills for performing a job with or without having a formal qualification.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The Pharmaceutical industry recorded a growth of 9.44 percent during on-going financial year
on account of growth in galenicals (tincture) 32.94 percent, injections 46.07 percent, capsules
45.42 percent and tablets 42.77 percent.
The industry continues to reap the benefits of favorable government policies like higher PSDP spending on health and clarity on drug regulatory policy in the domestic market.
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan launched by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance here Thursday the rising income levels, health awareness among masses, Prime
Minister’s national health program at country level and Sehat Insaf card in KPK province helped to
boost pharmaceuticals sector.
The food beverages and tobacco recorded a growth of 2.33 percent on account of delayed
in sugar crushing whereas last year the major growth was arrived from sugar along with
others. The items recorded growths are soft drinks 10.41 percent, cooking oil 2.39 percent
and starch & its product 3.96 percent.