PESHAWAR, April 3: Speakers at a seminar opposed the imposition of General Sales Tax (GST) on medicines and asked the government to withdraw the tax and provide free health care to the general public.

The one-day seminar was organized by Consumer Action Council, an NGO here at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, that was addressed by representatives of various political parties, NGOs and lawyers.

Speaking at the seminar ANP’s central secretary information Haji Mohammad Adeel said that International Monetary Fund and World Bank had pressurized the government to impose the GST on medicines. He said the government had failed to provide relief to the poor and loans were being spent on non-developmental sector.

Provincial Chief of Jamaat-i-Islami Prof Ibraheem termed move a great injustice with the consumers and said it was a hanging sword over the masses. He said the government took the anti-patients decision without taking the stake holders into confidence, which had caused resentment among the people against the armed forces.

Commenting on the ban of private practice of doctors in the NWFP, the Jamaat leader said that the decision would directly affect the patients as the government hospitals were not in a position to cope with increasing load of private patients.

He termed the GST a conspiracy of multinational companies and asked the political parties to raise voice against this unjust decision.