ISLAMABAD: In a bid to reform the health sector, President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday appro­ved the National Institutes of Health (Reorganisation) Amendment Bill 2025, which aims to reorganise the institution and also set up a cancer database.

The president also approved the Anti-Dumping Duties Amend­ment Bill 2025 for legal clarity regarding the imposition of anti-dumping duties on projects funded by Chinese grants.

The National Assembly passed the NIH bill on August 12, 2025. “There is a dire need for establishing the national cancer registry to understand the actual burden of disease, and to implement a nati­onal action plan for cancer prevention, and management strategies to control the growing epidemic,” according to the bill.

“Through this bill, the structure and governance of the National Institute of Health will be made more effective. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure the reorganisation of the institution and enhance its performance,” the President Secretariat’s press wing said in a press release. It said that the approval of the bill marked a significant step toward reforms in the health sector and institutional improvement.

The NIH bill said that the centre “shall assure the registration of cancer patients in central repository” to understand the actual burden of disease and to implement a national action plan for its prevention.

It also envisaged management strategies to control the growing epidemic, collect data on the cancer cases and establish a database of the cancer pat­ients.

Through this bill, the government also aimed to encourage awareness at the village and union council level and to work with other governmental and non-governmental agencies whose goal was the eradication of cancer.

It said the center would register the cancer cases under the ‘confirmed cancer cases’, ‘deaths due to cancer’, ‘recoveries from cancer’, ‘hospitalised pendency of cancer’, and cancer demographic information (age, gender, location).

As per the bill, the personal particulars of a cancer patient would not be disclosed to any unauthorised person without the prior written consent of the patient.

The bill said the cancer cases were rising globally at a remarkable rate. According to the Global Cancer Observatory, the total number of cases in Pakistan was 178,388 in 2020; and these figures were provided by the Punjab Cancer Registry, which represented the population of Lahore and some parts of central Punjab.

“Considering the overall 220 million population, these figures are severe underestimation of the true cancer burden in Pakistan,” the bill added. It said that several atte­mpts at establishing a national cancer registry in the country had failed in the past due to resource limitations.

Anti-dumping duties bill

President Asif Ali Zardari has approved the Anti-Dumping Duties Amendment Bill 2025. “Following his approval, the duties will be effective from July 1, 2020. The bill was sent to the President after (it was) adopted by the National Assembly and (the) Senate,” the President Secretariat’s media wing said.

It said that the bill was approved to provide legal clarity regarding the imposition of anti-dumping duties on projects, funded by China.

The decision for this amendment was made during the progress review meeting of the Gwadar projects in October 2022.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2025