Balochistan has witnessed rapid growth in last couples of the year. Different packages were announced to sustain the development of Balochistan. People who actually abandoned the state and turn rogued eventually are coming back because of the development. Furthermore, the non-state actors are on demise whereas the local population is getting basic facilities which they were deprived of in past. Constitution of Pakistan bound the state to provide all basic rights to people of Pakistan. Health is one of the rights which are basic necessities. In fact, there are various reasons for underdevelopment and health is the major one among them. Balochistan is facing the threat of HIV/AIDS which eventually put the government on alert.
The people from different tribes abandoned their families and started a revolt against the state. Their hideouts were hilly mountains from where they were involved in criminal activities against the state and its people. Staying in mountains away from the population, they had no access to health facilities and had been infected by diseases such as AIDS, HIV, and TB. When the situation became normal and they were allowed to come back to their homes in after agreement with government, they brought those infectious diseases with them in populated areas. With their arrival, these infectious diseases started spreading and a large number of people got infected. Let alone other parts of the province, the provincial capital is having at least 900 HIV victims.
Provincial government has initiated a program to counter these diseases. Many diagnostic centers for the patients of HIV are established in different parts of at least 28 districts in province. All these centers are fully funded by government where patients don’t have to spend a single penny from their pockets. Health minister of the province has pledged to counter these infectious diseases and to provide and improve the health sector in province on priority bases.
It’s believed that total number of HIV/AIDs is around 3500 in province out of which only 856 are registered with the provincial AIDS control program. The high rate of illiteracy in province is one of the reasons of spread of such infectious diseases. People have no awareness on how to protect themselves from diseases or to diagnose them on time.
Federal and provincial governments have started taking step to improve the health sector in province. Recently Khaqan Abbasi announced a 10-year uplift package to end the plight of Balochistan. Health has a major chunk in that package. Apart from that, Anwar ul Haq -spoke person of provincial government- has also announced to increase the number of ad-hoc doctors in province. Health sector of the province is also discussed in Join Summit of CPEC two weeks ago. It shows that government is serious to improve the health sector for people of the province.
