PESHAWAR: Even seven years after its enactment, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has failed to frame rules for the implementation of a crucial legislation aimed at declaring thalassaemia and hepatitis-C tests compulsory for the people planning to marry.

The erstwhile NWFP Assembly had passed the KP Preventive Health Act in 2009 binding the government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the legislation in the next six months.

An official in the know told Dawn that the situation reflected the relevant government department’s apathy towards the crucial piece of legislation.

A health department official said even the law department was not aware of the legislation when it was asked about it.

“We’d to approach the provincial assembly, which informed that it was a private member’s bill, which was passed in 2009,” he said.

Apparently, the fact is that it’s a private member’s bill that none of the stakeholders, including health and auqaf departments, paid any attention to its enforcement after passage and therefore, it was easily forgotten.

After enactment, govt was bound to make rules for preventive health law in six months

The official said whatever happened to that legislation was a case of typical Pakistani conduct in which everybody talked a lot but no one bothered to take practical steps for it.

He said it was not clear who was to frame rules under the law as the law mostly had to do with nikah registrars across the province who were not employees of the health department.

The official said nikah registrars were under the district administration under the Muslim Family Laws and apparently, they required involvement of the provincial auqaf department.

“Whether it is health, auqaf or social welfare department, all have shunned their duties in connection with the implementation of this legislation,” he said.

Section 3 of the law laid down certain precautionary or preventive health measures, which needs to be fulfilled before solemnising every marriage in the province.

According to Section 3(i), a nikah registrar shall obtain test reports of premarital screening of spouses for thalassaemia and Hepatitis-C, while under the sub-section 3(ii) the results of the tests (whether it may be) shall have no effect on the marriage being solemnised.

Sub-section 3(iii) says that nikah registrar shall keep and maintain these reports for at least two years from the date of the marriage is solemnised, while under sub-section 3(iv) if a marriage is solemnised in contravention of these provisions or clause (iii) is violated, the license of such nikah registrar shall be cancelled and whoever, other than nikah registrar, solemnises such marriage shall be fined Rs10,000.

Thalassaemia is autosomal recessive disease as if two of its carriers get married, then they will have 25 per cent chance of having an offspring with beta-thalassaemia major in every pregnancy. And for the survival of such children, regular monthly blood transfusion and chelation therapy are required to withdraw excess iron from their bodies.

According to the health department, there are around 4,000 thalassaemia major cases in the province.

Experts say there is no easily available cure for this disorder and therefore, screening and preventive approach should be adopted towards it.

When contacted, health secretary Abid Majeed said the department was working on a project to execute anti-thalassaemia projects at district level in the province.

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016