Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz inaugurated Pakistan’s first cardiac transplant center at the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology on Friday. “We have to get rid of the mentality that the best medical treatment is abroad,” she said. The CM also announced that heart transplant procedures at the facility will be completely free for eligible patients and the government will bear the costs up to $50,000 per transplant.
Main Highlights
- Jinnah Institute of Cardiology becomes Pakistan’s first-ever heart transplant center
- CM announces 100 percent free heart transplant for needy patients
- Chinese technology to bring cost of transplants down to about $10,000:
- Govt 250-bed facility built at a cost of Rs16 billion
- UK-based cardiologist Dr Hasnat Khan returns to Pakistan to train staff
Chief Minister #Punjab #MaryamNawaz takes a historic step in cardiac care | Maryam Nawaz Heart Transplant Centre (MNHTC), Jinnah Institute of Cardiology (JIC), Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan 🇵🇰
End-stage heart failure no longer means the end of hope. Pakistan’s first dedicated heart… pic.twitter.com/wxgyEbj4Ec
— Dr. Adnan Khan (@Dr_Khan) August 21, 2026
Her government intends to significantly reduce the real cost of a heart transplant, Maryam Nawaz said. With Chinese technology, she said, the cost could drop to around $10,000, making the procedure accessible to many more patients over time. “Heart transplant procedures will be conducted at the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology absolutely free of cost,” she said. “We have established the first of its kind heart transplant center in Pakistan.
The Jinnah Institute of Cardiology is a Rs16 billion hospital with 250 beds. It is located just across the Jinnah Hospital residential area of Lahore. The institute functions independently. It has a catheterization laboratory, MRI machines, modular operation theatres, dedicated cardiac wards, pathology and radiology labs, intensive care and emergency departments specially developed for cardiac patients.
A Famous Cardiologist Returns Home
CM Maryam Nawaz commended UK-based cardiologist Dr Hasnat Khan for his decision to return to Pakistan and serve the patients here. I plan to help train the doctors and staff at the institute and pass on the expertise I have gained over many years of practice abroad’, Dr Khan said.
The chief minister appealed to the doctors and nurses at the facility to serve the patients with a sense of patriotism. She said Pakistan had to get rid of the idea that the best treatment was only available abroad. CM: ‘The JIC Was My Dream’ The reward for doing their jobs properly would be the reward itself, she told ministers, bureaucrats and medical staff alike.
Maryam Nawaz said that she was really pleased to see the institute is fully functional and said that angiography procedures have already been carried out at the institute. “The JIC was my dream; I was looking forward to its completion,” she said. She specifically mentioned Dr. Azhar Kayani, Dr. Farqad Alamgir, Dr. Adnan Khan, IDAP CEO Shah Mir Iqbal, Health Secretary Azmat Mahmood and Secretary Nadia Saqib for their efforts in making the project a reality.
The chief minister also announced that home dialysis machines will be introduced across Punjab to extend care beyond hospital walls for patients requiring regular treatment.
Addressing the Increasing Demand for Heart Care
Maryam Nawaz said the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology, established by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, was doing a great job in a city of about 30 million people. She said patients come to the PIC not only from Punjab, but also from Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. With heart disease on the rise, the new institute is supposed to help close a gap that a single public hospital can no longer keep up with, she said.
She resisted the urge to compare Pakistan with Western countries and said that Pakistan is only 79 years old as a country. She said some Western countries have populations smaller than Lahore or even smaller than a single neighborhood here. Last year, she said, some 100 million people visited public hospitals across the country for free medicines, surgeries, and procedures, sometimes even delivered to people’s homes.
A Realistic Assessment of What Needs Work
Maryam Nawaz did not shy away from admitting that problems still remain in the public healthcare system, even as she celebrated the new center. “Sometimes medicines, injections and insulin are stolen, staff take bribes and hospital equipment is deliberately damaged or made unusable,” she said. It was a rare moment of unvarnished criticism from a sitting chief minister at a celebratory event.
She directed IDAP CEO Shah Mir Iqbal to expedite work on the wider Medical District as soon as possible so patients across the province can get quality treatment without delays that have plagued similar projects in the past.
