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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPakistan\u2019s healthcare regulators, medical bodies and pharmaceutical representatives came together on Monday to address rampant unethical practices in the country\u2019s health sector, where weak oversight, quackery and profit-driven care undermine public trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The High-Level Forum on Good Governance and Ethical Practices in the Medical and Pharmaceutical Sector was held at a hotel in Islamabad, co-organised by Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) and PatientsNotProfits, an initiative of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Aga Khan University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice (retd) Zia Perwez, who currently chairs TIP, told the gathering: \u201cAny attempt at reforming healthcare should not be a state-led process alone. It must include the voices of healthcare professionals and other concerned stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DRAP chief executive Dr Obaidullah admitted governance has long been a challenge. \u201cThe very idea of establishing entities such as the DRAP and the respective healthcare commissions was that they would work differently from government bureaucratic culture,\u201d he said, adding that regulatory bodies must ensure transparency, accountability and ethical delivery of services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The centre of the forum\u2019s discussion was unethical medical practice. Research presented by LSHTM and AKU showed that \u201c40% of doctors in Karachi took a bribe from sales representatives affiliated with a completely fictitious company,\u201d said Prof Mishal Khan, highlighting how easily financial incentives can trump patient care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on the research, Prof Khan, along with TI Pakistan\u2019s Kashif Ali, put forward a series of policy recommendations to curb unethical practices. These included introducing a standardised curriculum on health regulations and ethics, making continuing medical education mandatory for doctors\u2019 relicensing, and requiring pharmaceutical staff to undergo training focused on ethical marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also called for a fair complaints system, mandatory public reporting by drug companies, regular disclosure of regulatory actions, and stronger capacity for DRAP to function effectively. Other proposals included enforcing rules on pharmaceutical marketing spend, reporting action taken against substandard drugs, and strengthening regulation of nutraceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prof Dr Sameen Siddiqi, chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at AKUH, called the study by Prof Mishal Khan\u2019s team a landmark publication. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to conduct a study of this nature in any country,\u201d he said. The paper found that \u201c40% of our physicians are engaged in unethical practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Rizwan Taj, who took over the PMDC\u2019s reins just over two years ago, said medical education had already been aligned with global standards and confirmed CME would be made mandatory for relicensing within a year. \u201cAt the moment we have 400,000 doctors registered. We will link relicensing with continuing medical education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Aamir Jafarey of SIUT urged the PMDC to treat bioethics as a separate discipline. \u201cThere must be a structured approach to developing bioethics as a department,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the pharmaceutical side, Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers\u2019 Association (PPMA) member Dr Osman Waheed said the body would establish an ethics committee and provide training material on ethical marketing. \u201cUnless there is buy-in from everyone or strict enforcement, there wouldn\u2019t be impactful change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second panel, moderated by TI Pakistan\u2019s Kashif Ali, featured Dr Zainab Hasan, Director of Clinical Governance and Training at the Sindh Healthcare Commission; Ayesha Tammy Haq, Executive Director of the Pharma Bureau; Dr Noor Muhammad Shah, director of DRAP\u2019s licensing division; and Dr Shahzad Ali Khan, Vice Chancellor of the Health Services Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Zainab said one of the biggest issues in enforcing regulations is the lack of public awareness. \u201cWe receive plenty of complaints, but there have been hardly any on over-prescribing or unnecessary medical tests,\u201d she said. Moreover, \u201cmany of the persons who are engaged in over-prescriptions aren\u2019t even doctors, they are quacks,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the SHCC, we are big advocates for ethical practices,\u201d Dr Zainab said. \u201cWe even collaborated with Dr Mishal and her team on their research study and there was lots of learning for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ayesha Tammy Haq of the Pharma Bureau said the issue was not profit-making but excessive profiteering. \u201cPharma companies are not philanthropists. They are there to make a profit. But you don\u2019t need to make 10,000% profit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DRAP CEO clarified that the regulator had advertised a call for proposals six months ago but had hardly attracted any interest. \u201cWe cannot expect Pakistan to develop a new drug in the next 10 years, but at least we can have local research to identify systemic issues and ways to address them,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Health Services Academy Vice Chancellor Dr Shahzad Ali Khan called for joint ownership of reforms. \u201cThe government alone cannot provide services to the entire population. You need the private sector to work with the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants agreed to form a working group under DRAP to advance reforms, pledging to strengthen accountability, transparency and collaboration in order to restore public trust in healthcare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Forum tackles rampant quackery, unethical practices and profit-driven care that weaken public trust Web DeskSeptember 29, 20254 min read Pakistan\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-9974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-express-tribune","tag-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9978,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions\/9978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alacpakistan.com\/event2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-5.png\")
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