LAHORE: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday inaugurated an expanded mobile veterinary fleet intended to deliver treatment and diagnostics to livestock farmers in rural Punjab, taking the number of functional mobile veterinary hospitals in the province to 262.
According to an official statement, the Chief Minister inspected a mobile veterinary dispensary, laboratory and X-ray unit, directed the livestock department to organise a livestock conference, and approved the proposed design for model veterinary hospitals across the province.
Livestock Minister Ashiq Hussain Kirmani and Secretary Livestock Ahmed Aziz Tarar briefed the ceremony that 30 additional mobile dispensaries and 17 mobile laboratories had been launched. Mobile dispensaries carry ultrasound and X-ray facilities, while mobile laboratories can conduct 40 tests on site, and the fleet will also undertake disease screening and surveillance.
The department plans X-ray facilities at 10 divisional hospitals, operation theatres and laboratories at 36 district facilities, and 138 ultrasound machines across tehsils. Some 6,964 motorbikes are to carry veterinary assistants to farm premises. Under the CM Internship Programme, 1,000 veterinary doctors and assistants have treated around 3.4 million animals so far.
The briefing said 230 tehsil-level veterinary hospitals would be built or rehabilitated, with a model hospital in each tehsil equipped with cattle, mechanical and horse crushes, hydraulic operating tables and modern lighting. An artificial insemination programme covering 800,000 animals is planned to improve breeding and raise milk and meat output.
Officials said Punjab had been protected from lumpy skin disease through an effective vaccination programme.
Livestock accounts for the largest single share of Pakistan’s agricultural value addition and is a primary income source for smallholder rural households, for whom the loss of a single animal can be financially severe. The scale of that exposure was visible during the 2025 floods, when PDMA reported that more than 1.5 million animals had to be relocated in Punjab, and again this week when the provincial cabinet committee approved Rs 7.2 million for a Nankana Sahib family that lost 16 buffaloes to electrocution.
The statement does not disclose the total cost of the fleet expansion, the annual running cost per unit, or how uptime will be measured — the figures that would allow independent assessment of whether 262 mobile hospitals translate into consistent service at the farm gate.
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