RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Wednesday that grand total of Ephedrine allocated quota was 7040.075 kilograms to a total of 13 firms, of which only seven imported 2,500 kilograms during the last ten years.

During the question hour, State Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar said that health ministry was authorized before devolution to allocate quota of controlled substances under the delegation of powers by Ministry of Narcotics Control including import and export of these substances.

Firms allotted import quota of ephedrine include M/S RASCO Pharma Lahore (200kg, 2007), M/S SYNTEX Pharmaceuticals Lahore (200kg, 2007), M/S UNEXOLBS PVT LTD Lahore (1090kg, 2007-08), M/S Munawar Pharma PVT LTD Lahore (800kg, 2007), M/S ISIS Pharmaceutical and Chemicals Karachi (1000kg, 2007), M/S Ferozsons Laboratories Limited KP (450kg, 2007), M/S Semos Pharmaceuticals PVT LTD Karachi (1000kg, 2007), M/S Atco Laboratories Limited Karachi (900kg, 2008-09), M/S Opal Laboratories PVT LTD Karachi (100kg,2008), M/S Regent Laboratories Karachi (1000kg, 2008-09), M/S Fozan Pharmaceutical Industries PVT LTD Peshawar (50kg, 2009), M/S Sanofi Aventis Karachi (75kg for testing, 2009) and M/S Karachi Pharmaceutical Laboratories Karachi (250kg, 2010). However, only seven out of these firms that include RASCO Pharma, NEXOLABS, ISIS Pharmaceutical and Chemical, Atco Laboratories, Fozan Pharmaceutical and Sanofi Aventis imported 2500 kilograms substance.

The senators expressed concern over the sharp drop in number of Pakistani workers sent to the Gulf countries during the last four years and wanted the government to draw up a policy to arrest this decline.

Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada told the House during the question hour that the reasons behind fall in number of Pakistanis sent to the Gulf nations, included the Yemen conflict, plunge in oil prices, slowdown of their economies and the new policies of those states. Responding to their queries in place of Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human resource Development, the minister said that under the new policies, Pakistani workers and those from some other countries were being sent back home.

“Saudi Arabia, which used to give financial aid to others, is today seeking loans,” Riaz Pirzada maintained. About prospects of sending Pakistani workers to other countries, the minister explained that Pakistanis are mostly unskilled, whereas those from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries have skilled manpower and they are sending them abroad.

Dr Jamaldeni of NP-Mengal said that the government of Oman had recruited around 250 Pakistanis, but they were not getting so far the no-objection certificate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He urged the government to look into this issue.

“The details given on these four pages are beautiful and I would rather say poetic [and] if one has to believe in this, Pakistanis enjoying best health facilities, but alas, our children are being born on roads, rickshaws and patients are facing agony outside OPDs and don’t get medicines from government hospitals,” asserted Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of MQM, after going through the reply to a question by Dr Jamaldeni, who had asked whether any reforms package had been prepared for health sector. In the written reply, Minister for National Health Services, regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar gave details of the reform package on health, which included Prime Minister’s National Health Programme, a social health protection initiative, which had been launched by the ministry as per the directives from the Prime Minister Office.

“Who is responsible if there is no secretary, joint secretary and deputy secretary posted in the Ministry of Postal Services?” asked Deputy Chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, when the Minister Maulana Ameer Zaman of JUI-F said that while the summary for appointment of a secretary had been approved, the posts of joint secretary and deputy secretary were yet to be filled.

However, he assured the House that within four-five months, the Pakistan Post Office Department would show a turn around that had recorded a deficit of Rs9,306 million during financial year 2016-17.