KARACHI, Dec. 4: In the next budget, allocation for health sector would be increased from Rs4.3 billion to Rs6.1 billion, said the federal health minister on Saturday evening.

Speaking at the eight annual symposium of the Pakistan Hypertension League, M. Nasir Khan said the provincial governments have also increased their budent on health sector, with the Punjab government taking the lead as it has increased allocation by 65 per cent.

As a consequence of the increase, he said improvements would start becoming apparent to the common people within the next three or four years.

He said that he had pleaded for an increase in the budgetary allocations so that investment could be made on new equipment, medicines and training and welfare of doctors and paramedical staff.

The government, he said, had passed a law under which the non-smokers are supposed to be protected from effects of passive smoking.

Similarly, a law has been adopted which amends the old 'medico-legal' procedure under which medical treatment has been made permissible in a medico legal case before the registration of a report by police.

Earlier, medical aid could not be provided to an injured person prior to the registration of a report by the police.

Mr Khan said if the government only succeeded in providing safe blood and water to masses, the burden of diseases would reduce considerably.

"In an effort to make the blood safe, we have passed an Act that makes screening of every bag for various diseases mandatory before use."

Another law on organ donation and transplantation is under active consideration and would be presented during the next session of the National Assembly, he said.

The draft law has already been vetted by the health and law ministries.

The absence of such a law has not only created unnecessary hurdles for the patients, but also helped spawn a 'market' where people could trade in different organs.

The minister announced that control of hypertension would be included in the objectives of the primary healthcare policy.

He also announced that his ministry would finance a national survey aimed at finding out the prevalence of hypertension.

He said research endeavours would be supported by the government in a big way.

His ministry also needed to sift its focus from communicable diseases to the non-communicable ones.

Pakistan, he added, had often been described as an 'ashtray' of the world. "The time has come for us to alter this perception and we must change our attitude towards tobacco."

Mr Khan said fast food was rightly described as 'junk food' by some, because on the one hand it fuelled obesity and on the other it results in a drain of foreign exchange if consumed too much in the developing countries. He called for a realization that traditional food was healthy.

Speaking on the occasion, the president of the HPL, Prof Azhar Masood Farooqui, stated that up to 30 per cent of the Pakistanis of 30 years or less could be having hypertension. "Similarly, about half the Pakistanis of age 50 might be suffering from high blood pressure."

He declared that between three and five per cent of the Pakistani children might be having hypertension.

He called on the minister to consider including hypertension control in the primary healthcare policy on the grounds that high blood pressure could be as widespread as diarrhoea, for instance.

Prof Farooqui said the national health survey, conducted more than a decade ago, had put the prevalence of hypertension in Pakistan at 11 per cent. "This is a big figure, especially when we know that the prevalence might have gone up since the exercise was carried out."

The professor advocated low intakes of salt, sugar and fat in diet.

He also emphasized the role of physical exercise and non-smoking in the prevention of hypertension.

In his presentation, the convener of the symposium, Prof Mohammad Ishaq, described the activities of the Pakistan Hypertension League and also described the plans of the professional association.

Prof Ishaq said the Pakistan Hypertension League sought to establish a national research cell. It also planned to periodically organize structured educational programmes for doctors as well as paramedics.