During the last five years (2008-2013), the prime minister office spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the treatment of bureaucrats and politicians abroad.
According to a Cabinet Division document available with Dawn, the beneficiaries got the treatment in countries like the US, UK, India and China.
Most of the approvals for the treatment abroad were allowed under former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
An official of the Cabinet Division told Dawn: “We have paid the foreign hospital bills after getting an approval from the office of the prime minister because the premier had the prerogative to approve the health bills of those who could not get treatment in Pakistan.”
Parliamentarians: According to the document, Senator Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N was allowed £20,000 for the treatment of an ailment in the UK in 2013.
Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, was sanctioned £30,000 for a rehabilitation and speech therapy in the UK in 2010 by the then Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Mr Hashmi was in the PML-N at the time the finance division approved the amount.
Makdhoom Shahabuddin of the PPP and a former health minister in Mr Gilani’s cabinet was provided $11,565. He underwent an emergency treatment of high grade fever during a visit to the US in 2010.
Former railway minister Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi spent $46,968 for the treatment of bullet injuries he sustained during an attack by gunmen in September 2009. According to reports, he had received two bullets in the legs and was stable but was in a state of shock.
Senator Haji Adeel of the ANP also received treatment in the UK for diabetes. He was paid $30,000 in 2010.
A former PML-Q legislator, Begum Shahnaz Shaikh, also received treatment in the US for her backache at a cost of $30,000.
When contacted, Makhdoom Shahabuddin told Dawn: “I was on an official visit to the US in 2010 and was due to meet my American counterpart when I fell sick and was admitted to a hospital,” he recalled.
“On my return, I was informed by the secretary health that my bill would be paid by the government. I don’t know how much was the amount, but it was paid by the government,” he added.
When Hamid Saeed Kazmi was asked to comment on his $46,000 bill paid by the government, he maintained: “I admit that my life was not in danger, but the bullet had crushed my leg.”
He added: “Because of errors during the operation, my injured leg was left three inches shorter and I had no option but to go abroad for a better treatment.”
Mr Kazmi said: “Had I got treatment here, it could have left me disfigured.”
Asked whether he was aware that the bill for his treatment abroad was paid by the government, he said: “I have no knowledge at all but it was the job of the government to pay my bills.”
Javed Hashmi’s personal staff officer Mohammad Ajmal told Dawn: “Mr Hashmi has never taken a single penny from the federal government for his treatment and the information is wrong.”
Senator Mushahidullah Khan was approached multiple times and a text message was also sent on his mobile phone for his comment, but he did not return the call.
Bureaucrats: According to the document, Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, a former principal secretary to the prime minister, was paid £40,000 for the treatment of a disease not even known to the prime minister office.
“All we were asked is to issue the amount in pound sterling and the ministry of finance had to follow the orders of the prime minister office,” said an official of the Cabinet Division who did not want to be named.Mr Lashari is still in the UK, according to a source. He left Pakistan in July 2012 and did not return mainly because of his alleged involvement in the ephedrine scam.
Mussadiq Mohammad Khan, a grade 21 officer, was given $65,000 for a liver transplant in the US in 2012.
Mohammad Aslam Sanjarani was provided $16,328 for an angioplasty. According to the document, Mr Sanjarani underwent an emergency treatment during his visit to the US 2008.
Mrs Shah Taj Farooqi, wife of Salman Farooqi, the secretary general to the president, was allowed to spend £25,000 for treatment in the UK in 2013 during the tenure of former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.
Abbas Khan, a former inspector general of the PK police, was provided $95,000 for the treatment of a brain tumour in Germany.
When Dr Bilal Khan, a physician working with a private hospital, was asked whether these diseases could be treated in Pakistan, he said: “The treatment of all the diseases mentioned in the document is possible in Pakistan.”
He added: “We have some of the best hospitals of the world in Pakistan like for cancer we have the Atomic Energy Commission’s Nuclear Oncology and Radiology Institute in Islamabad, Shaukat Khanum in Lahore and the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi.”
He said even liver transplant was carried out at Shifa Hospital for the last one year.
Regarding speech therapy, Dr Bilal said: “The federal government has one of the best speech therapy and physiotherapy institutes in the country – the National Institute of Rehabilitation and Medicine, Islamabad (NIRM).”
He observed: “You don’t need to go outside until you don’t trust Pakistani doctors or your own institutions.”
