The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination on Tuesday approved "The West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking (Repeal) Bill." The committee met here on Tuesday with Senator Sheikh Mian Ateeq Ahmad in the chair to discuss following agenda items:
Detailed and comprehensive briefing on Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination and its attached departments on their working and performance inter-alia indicating staff strength, budgetary allocations, properties and scope of the ministry;
Consideration of the bill titled as "The West Pakistan Prohibition of Smoking in Cinema House (Repeal) Bill, 2018" moved by Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan on behalf of Saira Afzal Tarar, the then Minister for National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, in the Senate sitting held on 24-05-2018.
Secretary Health Naveed Kamran Baloch said the government in 2002 issued an ordinance to discourage smoking especially under age smoking, which covered all the territory of Pakistan. He informed the panel that after the passage of 18th constitutional amendment, most of the powers of Health Ministry were transferred to provinces, but owing to collaboration with global partners in 2013, the current ministry was created. He added that 27 national institutions along with 23 global partners are attached with the Ministry of NHSR.
The committee was informed that the date has been announced to conduct elections of National Nursing Council. The panel also took the issue of closure of homeopathic clinics across the country. Speaking on the issue, Chairman Committee Mian Ateeq said that 38,000 allied clinics of homeopaths in Punjab were shut down which deprived thousands of people of their livelihood.
He added that most of the people practicing at homeopathic clinics were having professional degrees. He said that the panel has requested the chief minister of Punjab to give an appointment on the subject so that the matters can be discussed with him and amicably resolved. The panel directed the officials concerned to attend the next meeting and brief the panel on the developments.
The panel also took up the issue of the construction of 45 new hospitals. The officials briefing on the subject informed the panel that in 2016, then Prime Minister of Pakistan in an official letter directed the chief secretaries of all the provinces, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas to allocate land for the construction of 45 hospitals which would be fully funded by the federal government and designed by international consultants having state-of-the-art facilities, but owing to political crisis, the government could not focus on the project.
The officials said that the government of Pakistan has received appreciation from global partners on effectively dealing with polio for which all credit goes to Prime Minister's Polio Cell. The officials informed the panel that global partners are providing Rs 23 billion to the Ministry for dealing with diseases like polio, malaria, TB, AIDS, while the government has acquired Rs 9 billion loans for the purpose.
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