KARACHI, May 6: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday urged the federal government to increase health budget by at least two per cent. They also called for the implementation of the Smoking Prohibition Ordinance-2002 in letter and spirit , and demanded that law be enacted to regulate laboratory services.

They also demanded of the city government to discourage cigarettes advertisements, impose a ban on the sale of polythene bags, contain the level of pollution, ensure provision of safe water and declare wearing of helmets mandatory for motorcyclists.

The speakers, renowned doctors, were expressing the views while discussing Health care in Karachi: What can be done? at the seminar organized by the Public Health Advocacy Forum.

City Nazim Niamatullah Khan was the chief guest. Those who spoke on the occasion included VC of Dow University of Health Sciences Dr Masood Hameed Khan, head of the JPMC Surgery Department Dr Rashid Jooma, General Secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association Dr Shershah Syed, Liaquat National Hospital's Dr Naseem Salahuddin, and Aga Khan University Hospital's Dr Javaid A, Khan.

The city nazim urged doctors and their respective forums to join hands with the CDGK to help improve health and environmental conditions in the metropolis. The nazim urged the doctor community to extend its cooperation to the CDGK in evolving some mechanism for improving health facilities.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rashid Jooma expressed concern over the rising number of road accidents in the city. He attributed the increase in head injury cases among motorcyclists to people's ignoring safety measures, and demanded of the government to declare wearing of helmet compulsory for motorcyclists.

He proposed that a 'road-user authority' be set up and all the traffic-related affairs, such as vehicle registration, administration of traffic police, issuance of driving licence and route permits, be assigned to it.

Regretting that the federal government allocates only 0.9 per cent to the health sector in its budget, Dr Shershah Syed urged the government to increase the allocation at least by two per cent.

Expressing concern over the growing number of dog-bite cases, Dr Naseem Salahuddin, called for a campaign against the stray dogs because rabies were 100 per cent fatal and those falling victims of hydrophobia suffered extreme pain before death.

Speaking about tobacco abuse, Dr Javaid A. Khan urged the government not to allow sale of gutka, supari, pan masala, etc., as these items could cause oral cancer to the consumers.

He demanded imposition of a strict ban on all such advertisements. He pointed out that it was an established fact that smoking could cause lung cancer. Dr Murad M. Khan of the AKUH attributed growing number of depression cases in both men and women to different kinds of stress.

Summing up the discussions, Dr Masood Hameed Khan said that the crux of the matter was that if the government wanted to have a healthy nation, it must increase the budget for health sector.

He demanded of the city government to take immediate measures to check pollution, besides ensuring that no untreated chemicals and industrial waste were flushed into the sea.

The JPMC's Dr Tasneem Ahsan, AKUH's Dr Anita Zaidi, Dr Arshad Altaf and Dr Mohammad Wasay read out their papers on hypertension, childhood infections, unsafe injections and tetanus, respectively.