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Implementation of laws daunting task: Dr Arif Alvi

By Our Correspondent
May 05, 2019

KARACHI: The National Commission for Human Rights, Sindh Chapter, launched a report on “Right to health in Pakistan”, which emphasizes including health as fundamental right in the Constitution of Pakistan. The report was launched at a local hotel in Karachi. The President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, was the chief guest of the launching ceremony.

Chairman NCHR Justice (retd) Ali Nawaz Chowhan, NCHR Member Sindh Anis Haroon, President Pakistan Mental Health Association, Dr. Syed Haroon Ahmed, and General Secretary Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) welcomed the guests.

Dr. Azra Pechuho, Minster Health, Sindh, Barrister Faisal Siddiqi and Kausar S Khan CHS, AKU, were among the speakers.

Ms. Anis Haroon, NCHR member Sindh, said that health has always remained in the last priorities of our successive governments in Pakistan and as a result, Pakistan has very grim health indicators. She further said that here it is significant to mention that Pakistan has a vibrant discourse on human rights. There are autonomous commissions, and government bodies, civil society organizations that lobby for human rights and protest over violations of human rights. But violations of health rights have never been seen as human rights violation.

She questioned “why is maternal death not a human rights issue? Why is malnutrition of children under five not raised as a human rights issue? Child mortality, due to diarrhea, is high in Pakistan; why is children’s right to clean water not a human rights issue? Pakistan is ranked the highest when it comes to rates of still births. Why is maternal health not taken as a right to health issue, while its burden continues to increase in Pakistan?”

She further said that we should adopt WHO’s definition of health, which says “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ She said that the report also proposes a constitutional amendment to be incorporated with Article 9 of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan which will make it justiciable in the court of law.

Chairman NCHR Justice (retd) Ali Nawaz Chowhan emphasized that health despite being one of the fundamental and universal rights, does not receive as much attention and debate as some other issues. The political parties have demoted health to the periphery rather than maintaining it and scaling it up. The current state of health in Pakistan paints a very dismal picture. The challenges of the health sector are enormous. The World Health Organization ranked Pakistan, 122 out of 190 countries in terms of its health status.

Sharing his concerns, he said Pakistan is among the only three countries along with Afghanistan and Nigeria which have not been declared polio free. Persons with disabilities languish in the corners of the society with no special facilities or infrastructures available for them. Many of the disabled population became disabled because they could not receive proper medical care at the right time.

Kausar S Khan, one of the lead authors of the report, said that health has never been seen as a human right in the civil society and health practitioners. She said it is ironical that we do raise voice for other violations of our rights but we have never raised voice when our right to health is violated. She requested the President of Pakistan to formulate a task force which should point out the priority areas in health within three months and make it part of its health program Ehsas.