Centre trying to promote alternative medicine, says federal health secy

All kinds of alternative medicine, particularly Eastern (Unani) medicine, have great potential to cure diseases. Through the use of the Unani medicine, not only a large number of patients will benefit but also issues like anti-microbial resistance will be addressed.

This was stated by Dr Allah Bukhsh Malik, the federal secretary of health services, regulation and coordination, as he was addressing on Thursday the fifth Hamdard International Conference, titled ‘Global Popularity of Alternative Medicine, Responsibilities and Challenges’. The conference, which was held at Bait al-Hikmah, Hamdard University, was chaired by Hamdard Foundation Pakistan President and Hamdard University Chancellor Sadia Rashid.

The federal secretary said the federal health authorities were making efforts to support the Unani medicine and planning to establish a separate section for the Eastern medicine in the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap). He said he had personal association with the foundard of Hamdard Foundation, Hakim Mohammed Said, whom he first met him in 1983 and found him to be an embodiment of what Pakistan stood for.

Prof Dr Zabta Khan Shinwari, the president of the National Council for Tibb that works under the federal health ministry, said Western and Eastern medicines were international cousins and so were the doctors and hakims. He announced that the federal government had decided to establish a hospital of Eastern medicine in Islamabad.

Explaining the vision of the National Council for Tibb, he said the council was supposed to spread the traditional and herbal medicine as it was being done in China, Korea, India and elsewhere. “But improvement in quality of herbal medicines is a must for its popularity and acceptance by the people,” he added.

Sadia in her presidential address thanked the federal secretary for visiting Madinat al-Hikmah, which was founded by Hakim Said as a city of education, science and culture.

She said Dr Malik had been associated with the national medicine policy of the federal government and had a major role in the implementation of new health care plans such as the Sehat Sahulat Programme to extend health care assistance to the disabled and their families.

Prof Dr Anwarul Hasan Gilani, the Haripur University vice chancellor, said the integration of herbal medicine in health care was the idea of Hakim Said, which he gave 70 years ago. “This is what very much is needed today,” he said, adding that herbal medicine was our heritage and when allopathy failed to cure chronic diseases, the Unani medicine succeeded.

Prof Dr Rashid AH Bhika, the Ibn Sina Institute of Tibb South Africa chairman, in his video message paid rich tribute to Hakim Said. He called the Hamdard Foundation founder a multi-dimensional personality and a man of vision.