KARACHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his bid to make inroads into Sindh province, the stronghold of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), on Thursday announced a 500-bed hospital in Thatta district and vowed to launch health insurance scheme for the least developed areas of the province.

He reached Malki, a sub-district of Thatta, to address a scheduled public rally held by Shirazi family, known for swaying the electoral results in favour the party they join.

The Prime Minister held out assurances of extending multiple socio-economic facilities to the people of Thatta as well as Sujawal, Tando Mohammad Khan, the adjoining town of Thatta, a historical city where Mughal emperor Shah Jehan built a mosque, but currently the town is in shambles.

“I am committed to do away with all the deprivation of Sindh and will give a new vigour to towns and villages of the province,” Sharif said.

“We will give the roads, electricity, motorways and water to slake the thirst of the soil of the province,” he promised.

Criticising the PPP and the Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI), the opposition parties that rule in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, respectively, the prime minister said both the parties did not serve the people of the provinces.

“I promise to develop the villages of Sindh to turn them much better than the villages of Punjab,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the staggering development in his home-province.

He said that the provincial government should have contributed to the health card scheme for the poor masses, but it had failed to do so.

“Regardless to the provincial government’s contribution to the health card scheme, the federal government would launch the scheme on its own,” he said and pledged to come back soon to the district to launch the scheme.

The Punjab government, ruled by Sharif’s party, has recently introduced the health card scheme for the poor people of the province that allows them access to the quality medical treatment in the public and private sector hospitals.

He claimed that such a big package was not even given to Karachi and Peshawar.

The Prime Minister also ordered the authorities to lay infrastructure for the provision of natural gas to the towns of Thatta and Sujawal.

He said that he would also call the authorities of the power minister to visit to the town to address the electricity issues in the towns.