Speakers at a meeting of Shura Hamdard Karachi chapter urged the government to improve the environmental conditions of the country as not just medical health care, but the better environment leads to healthy society. The meeting was held yesterday on the theme: “Industry of drugs manufacturing and requirements of public health”, presided over by Justice (Rtd) Haziqul Khairi at a local hall.
Speaking on the occasion, former Senator and President, Brooks Pharma (Pvt) Limited, Abdul Haseeb Khan said, you might prepare a good medicine and dispense it properly, but if the stomach is empty because of non-availability of bread due to poverty, no medicine would give relief to the affected, the success of public health care system depended on abolition of poverty and hunger in the country. Sectors of health and education have badly been overlooked by the successive governments, absence of health policy and solid healthy system in the country was a clear proof of official negligence and lack of interest in public health by the government, he lamented.
‘Medicines are being sold openly without doctors’ prescriptions and receipts, the condition of government hospitals is going bad to worst and nobody is going to take responsibility to remove this distressing situation as code of conduct, is not being followed anywhere, he said, adding that all stakeholders – government, civil society, physicians and manufacturers of medicines should perform their due roles regarding requirements of public health.
‘There 850 companies are making medicines in the country, among them only 100 companies are in local and foreign trade and the rest are supplying medicines to government hospitals and the prices at which they are supplying is not possible to supply by the standard 100 companies being lower than their original cost,’ he informed.
He said that he was impressed by two great personalities of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said, who was his ideal and he wanted to follow his philosophy, which was, no doubt, a difficult task. Apart from being a manufacturer of allopathic medicines, he had also established an institution of Eastern Medicine at Shahrah-i-Quaideen, Karachi, Haseeb Khan concluded.
Prof. Dr. Akhlaque Ahmed, former pro Vice Chancellor, University of Karachi asked how much research is being done by Pakistani manufacturers. While more than 20 multinational companies used to introduce new medicines and products in the markets, because of their huge investment in research work and that’s the secret of their success.
Answering the question, Abdul Haseeb Khan said that Hakim Said always gave emphasis on research work and research on medicines is being carried out in Hamdard and some other institutions too. A “one health” perception is being evolved in the world which covered all aspects of health, he added.
Commodore (Rtd) Sadeed Anwar Malik was of the view that Indian medicines were also not at par with the western standard of medicines, because he himself listened people saying in a foreign country that Indian medicines should be taken after due care. No doubt, research is being done on medicines in Pakistan, but it was not up to the standard of western research. ‘Pakistani doctors in America are doing wonderful research on lever diseases, which is going to be completed soon,’ he said and added that the government should keep an eye on medical researches and encourage this process and establish maximum free dispensaries in the country.
Malik Liaquat Ali Tabassum, Chairman, Pakistan Ideology Thinkers Forum, Peshawar said that the improvement of medicines was not enough for health care, but it required clean water, pure food and an environment without pollution for the health of the people. Khursheed A. Hashmi and Sheikh Usman Damohi also spoke. Members of the meeting also recorded their sentiments to the electronic media and paid rich tribute to Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said on the occasion of his death anniversary on 17th October at the end of the meeting.