TAHIR AMIN

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Tuesday recommended the government to immediately register over 3,000 specialist doctors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to save their future.

The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSR&C) which met with Abdul Haseeb Khan in the chair also constituted a committee to be headed by the Director General of Health to propose recommendations in the rules with all stakeholders for bringing amendments to the law about PMDC. The recommendations would be tabled in the House after finalization.

Professor Mumtaz Ali Marwat and Professor Shoaib Shafi accused the PMDC for alleged encroachment in the area of College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) by stopping registration of specialists’ doctors.

Representing the CPSP, they said that it was a degree awarding body and has been recognized as such ever since its inception. The college is an entirely autonomous and fully self-financed body. The degrees, FCPS & MCPS, are fully registered with the PMDC ever since they started; however, the PMDC has been refusing registration on flimsy grounds. In spite of several representations, they have continued to violate the law. CPSP representatives requested the parliamentary panel to ensure that the PMDC should register the CPSP postgraduates, so as not to adversely affect their career.

State Minister for NHSR&C Saira Afzal Tarar said that the 18th constitutional amendment was made in haste, especially for education and health which resulted in creating problems as it was made without capacity building of the provinces. She said that provinces wanted authority but not ready to take responsibility or ownership for problems. The polio campaign was postponed several times in Karachi due to security concerns; however, situations would improve soon. Director General of Health Asad Hafeez said that the issue between the PMDC and the CPSP cropped up after the amendment in rules in 2012 and proposed the committee to bring new amendment to end the tussle.

The Chairman of the Committee said that due to spurious drugs and fake doctors, hundreds of people died; therefore, it was need of the hour to take strict actions against the responsible persons.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Arshad Khan said that recommendations of new proposed drugs pricing policy have been sent to the Prime Minister and likely to be presented in the ECC soon. He said that Pakistan exports worth $200 million of drugs.

The Director of DRAP said that an unlicensed factory working under the name of M/S Cherwel Enterprises in Gadoon Amazai was raided by the DRAP officials along with FIA officials and recovered huge quantity of fake tablets/capsules of some leading brands.

He said that 51 cases of fake medical/dental degree holders from different provinces and districts have been discovered and FIR has already been registered against the accused persons, however, no fake medical and dental degrees have been found in Islamabad so far.

He said the DRAP has accepted the challenge of combating the mafia involved in the manufacturing of fake medicines. All field offices of the DRAP in different provinces have been asked to keep a strict watch on this criminal and nefarious activity. Actions have been started against manufacturers who were found involved in the production of substandard, spurious and un-registered drugs. The DRAP is working on the zero tolerance policy for all such cases, he said.

Effective coordination is being developed by the DRAP with the FIA for actions against manufacturing and sale of fake drugs. A meeting of the DRAP authorities was held with the DG of FIA along with his directors from all provinces. It was decided that an urgent initiative will be taken to get hold of the criminals involved in this trade, the DRAP CEO added.

Raids were conducted on Khalid Pharmacy DHA Lahore and huge quantities of un-registered, smuggled and unwarranted medicines were recovered. Another fictitious manufacturing facility situated in the house in Chungi Amarsadu, Lahore, was raided and sealed along with equipment which was used for manufacturing spurious drugs of multinational companies.

Since the retail outlets are the main source for the sale of spurious drugs and sale of drugs is mainly monitored by the provincial governments, an inter-provincial Quality Control Vigilance Committee has been constituted for this very purpose, he added. He said that the Central Drug Laboratory (CDL) and the National Control Laboratory for Drugs (NCLD) are performing the function for testing the quality of drugs. The capacity building issue of these laboratories has been addressed in close collaboration with the International Health Partners (IHP). All Federal Inspectors of Drugs of DRAP has been given special training by the international inspectors of WHO to improve their skills. The number of Federal Drug Inspectors will be increased as soon as DRAP’s recruitment rules are notified. However, he said, that matters pertaining to practice and practitioners does not fall in the ambit of the DRAP.