Pakistan lacks a uniform framework for the practitioners of herbal medicines, which has given rise to quackery in the country. This was stated by President National Council for Tibb (NCT) Professor Munawar Shiekh while addressing a press conference here on Sunday.
The NCT President claimed that India was earning millions of dollars annually by exporting unani medicines. He said that Indian laws encourage promotion of herbal medicines but Pakistan still lacks any such laws.
He was of the view that the absence of any relevant law had encouraged quacks to take advantage of the situation. Shiekh said that the government was providing only one million rupees for 33 operational Tibya colleges of the country, which, he insisted was not sufficient to run even a single Tibya college.
He further said that rupees one million annual government grant for NCT was also not sufficient to pay the salaries of the staff.
NCT members regretted that the government had yet to consider their recommendations regarding regulating the practice of unani medicines in the country.
Earlier, the council held a meeting under the chairmanship of President NCT. The meeting decided to send eight persons to perform Haj on NCT expenses.
The meeting was attended by Health Ministry's advisor on traditional medicine Professor Rizwan Hafeez Malik, NCT controller of examination Kamran Latif Chughati, Hakeem Mujahid Barkati and Hakeem Hafiz Khurasheed. Meanwhile, the council has selected four members to be deployed in Makkah, Madina and Jeddah to provide medical assistance to Hujjaj.