The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, on the special instructions of Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, has taken another unique initiative to ensure universal health coverage by including free OPD (Outpatient Department) services in the Sehat Card Plus

Peshawar February. 19. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, on the special instructions of Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur, has taken another unique initiative to ensure universal health coverage by including free OPD (Outpatient Department) services in the Sehat Card Plus. The Chief Minister formally inaugurated the free OPD services in a ceremony held here at the Chief Minister’s House, on Wednesday. Provincial Cabinet Members, Members of the National and Provincial Assembly and officials from the Health Department attended the ceremony.
According to details, the OPD scheme is being launched as a pilot project in Mardan district, benefiting fifty thousand deserving households. In the second phase, the scheme will be extended to Chitral, Malakand, and Kohat districts. Under this scheme, medications, medical tests, and healthcare services will be provided free of cost. The pilot project is being launched in collaboration with the German organization KfW and will be further expanded in the future. Based on the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) data, approximately one hundred and twenty thousand deserving households from above mentioned four districts will benefit from this facility. Free OPD services will be available not only at hospitals already on the Sehat Card panel but also at all Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centers (RHCs) at the Union Council level. Notably, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become the first province to provide free OPD services under the Sehat Card Plus.
Addressing the event, the Chief Minister stated, “I take pride in the fact that my leader’s vision is of a welfare state, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is working towards realizing it.” He highlighted that the PTI government had expanded the Sehat Card from a limited-scale initiative to a province-wide program. Previously, free treatment under the Sehat Card was only available for admitted patients, but now OPD patients will also receive free healthcare, he added. Regarding the pilot project, he emphasized that the OPD scheme, initially, is being started in four districts, which do not include Dera Ismail Khan, and this is clear proof that he is the Chief Minister of the entire province. He pointed out that in the past, development projects were concentrated in the Chief Minister’s home district, but that will no longer happen.
The Chief Minister noted that during the caretaker government’s tenure, the Sehat Card program was nearly shut down, but his administration revived it and increased service rates under the program while still achieving monthly savings of one billion rupees due to efficient monitoring and transparency. He further stated that before his government, 70% of Sehat Card treatments were conducted in private hospitals, but they have improved the quality of public hospitals and restored public trust, and now 70% of treatments take place in government hospitals.
He also announced the establishment of Cardiac Satellite Centers in different regions of the province for heart disease treatment. Additionally, he highlighted new social welfare initiatives, including marriage assistance for four thousand deserving girls, where the government will cover wedding expenses and provide two hundred thousand rupees as dowry. Furthermore, he introduced a Life Insurance Scheme under which, in case of the death of a person under sixty years of age, their heirs will receive one million rupees, whereas if a person over sixty years passes away, their heirs will be provided with Rs. 500,000/-.
The Chief Minister also mentioned that his government had increased the province’s revenue by 55%, resulting in a budget surplus of Rs. 176 billion. He emphasized that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the only province to meet the IMF targets assigned to provincial governments and that even the IMF acknowledged the province’s achievements, whereas no other province met those targets.