The Jamaat-i-Islami Khyber Pakhtunkhwa North emir, Inayatullah Khan, has expressed concern about the provincial government’s initiative to operate government educational institutions and hospitals through a public-private partnership.
He believes that this approach will exacerbate the challenges faced by the people rather than alleviate them. Khan emphasised that the government must focus on providing basic facilities instead of shirking its responsibilities. Ensuring peace, health services, and free education are fundamentally the state’s duty, and the government should focus on fulfilling these obligations.
He shared these views during a press conference at the Swat Press Club. Khan criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf provincial government’s plan to privatise over 1,500 schools and colleges, as well as about 58 government hospitals. He warned that such a move would create severe difficulties for citizens. Currently, more than 5.5 million children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are out of school, and the government should be building more educational institutions to accommodate them, rather than transferring existing ones to the private sector.
Khan firmly stated that the policy of privatising government hospitals through public partnerships is unacceptable, as it would increase treatment costs and deny even basic health facilities to the impoverished population.
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He vowed that Jamaat-e-Islami would voice its opposition to the privatisation of education and healthcare at every opportunity, insisting that it is the government’s primary responsibility to provide free education, affordable healthcare, and a peaceful environment for the people.
