LAHORE, Oct 2: God bless Sheikh Alauddin of the ruling party who came up with a people-friendly proposal on the third day of the 26th session of the Punjab Assembly on Monday.
“If we can import vegetables from India, there’s no harm in importing medicines as well which are far cheaper than being marketed by multinationals in Pakistan”, argued the legislator.
He pointed out that a medicine available in India for as little as Rs25 is being sold here for Rs110. Profit rate in Pakistan ranges between 100 and 1,000 per cent. This is just a rip-off, he said, urging the government to give serious thought to importing medicines from the neighbouring country.
Since all lawmakers are entitled to medical facility at the public expense, most of them don’t know how difficult it is for an ordinary citizen to buy medicines — which are not only very expensive but in many cases also spurious. Health Minister Tahir Javed, without prevarications, admitted that the multinationals were making very high profits. He said unless these companies agreed to reduce their profit margins, prices of medicines could not come down.
But then he shifted the responsibility on to the federal government, saying registration of medicines or the fixing of their prices could be decided by Islamabad only. The minister, however, did promise that since it was a serious matter he would take it up with the federal government.
It goes without saying that prices of a number of items came down once the government started importing them in an attempt to defeat the profiteers and hoarders. If the government takes a similar decision in the case of medicines, the multinationals or the local manufacturers will come to their knees and reduce prices to survive the competition.
On the other hand, many people who can afford it go abroad for treatments only because medicines available in the country are not always reliable. Spurious medicines don’t give any relief and the patients start blaming it on the incompetence of doctors. Often the same prescriptions in other countries cure the patients within no time.
The Punjab Assembly also took up the issue of contaminated water being used by people of Lahore even after reports by the National University of Science and Technology that the samples from all nine towns contained poisonous arsenic.
Minister for Housing Reza Ali Gilani said arsenic was found in some, not all, areas. The government, he said, was in contact with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission for an expert opinion and would go by its advice to deal with the problem.
The PPP MPA Samiullah Khan pointed out that the problem had been identified more than a decade ago but the government had done nothing to solve it.
The legislator, perhaps, doesn’t know that the president, the prime minister, the governors, chief ministers, ministers, secretaries, civil and military bureaucrats, legislators, traders, industrialists, professionals and others with high income don’t use the arsenic-laden piped water being provided to ordinary mortals. They use bottled water of reputed companies — and thus are unaware of the ‘brand’ fellow countrymen are destined to. Had it been their problem, they would have spent a good percentage of the budget on solving it.
A poor man uses water supplied by the elected government; he becomes a ready target of water-borne diseases and gets spurious medicines for treatment. This is how life is going on for millions out there. The government, on the other hand, is consistent in its tall claims that it has taken ‘revolutionary steps’ to eradicate this menace or that scourage.
According to a report, more than 26,000 cases of adulteration, manufacturing of unhygienic food items, profiteering etc., are pending with the local courts. It is said about 50,010 food samples were seized, of which 24,311 were found adulterated.
“About 27,135 cases were registered during inspections in various localities of Lahore alone. Some 12,692 fake beverage bottles, 11,570kg of condiments, 60,035 packets of tea, 3,770kg loose tea, 388,038 packets of sweets, toffee, 13,270kg of tomato ketchup, 9,240kg of butter, ghee, 47.5kg food dyes, 12,772 bottles of “mineral” water have been seized during the last three years,” the report adds.
While cases against the defendants are pending, it is believed many have gone back to continuing their dirty businesses and making money.
Attendance at Monday’s PA session was much better compared to Friday and Thursday sessions, which were adjourned because of a lack of quorum. This time round more ministers were present after the chief minister reportedly reprimanded errant MPAs for failing to complete the quorum on the first two days of the session.
Still, a large number of ruling party legislators did not turn up. Perhaps they were preparing for the Iftar dinner the chief minister were to host in the evening.