Seriously. Someone please tell me. The government's latest stint to save "face" has hurled it into a chaotic frenzy of ineffective and bleary decision-making. Instead it should be hurled into a sanitorium, but we'll save that discussion for another day.
"Right-sizing", as they call it, is the politically correct term for down-sizing. Unfortunately, there's nothing "right" about any of Zardari's decisions....or are they Gillani's? Either way, the solutions they've derived are irresponsible and incoherent. Nevertheless, the big-wigs in Islamabad remain placid to the outcome. The result of these counterproductive decisions can and will gravely affect the lives of every Pakistani....that is to say whatever is left of it. Case in point: the ministry of health.
The federal government has decided to allocate much of the responsibility to the individual provinces. Specifically, the pharmaceutical industry is the first and foremost to be affected. In light of this mandate, each province will be responsible for authorizing the production and sale of drugs within their own respective provinces. Once a pharmaceutical company receives approval for their drug from the provincial ministry of health, it will then have to travel to the remaining four provinces to inform these other provinces about the production of their drugs and also seek approval from them. This will not only make the entire process tedious and laborious, but also presents a number of problems, some of which are as follows:-
1. Standardization, in general, will be considerably affected. The importance and significance of one central governing body which used to ensure that all drugs produced and sold within the country are of optimum quality and standard, will now be discontinued. As a result, the quality of these drugs can no longer be guaranteed. In other words, each province will have their own set of standards, and these standards will inevitably differ from province to province. Such variations will inadvertently affect the production quality of these medicines.
2. Trade names might over-lap. For example, if one company in Punjab names their drug a specific name and indicates it for the use of heart disease, another company in Balochistan can have the same name for their drug but indicate it for the use of asthma. This can easily happen as a result of the discontinuation of a central governing body which used to raise the red flag and sound alarms when such over-laps and discrepancies occured. Consequently, this sort of over-lap will profoundly confuse consumers, and can lead to dangerous and fatal consequences.
3. Cost of medicines will vary significantly from province to province. After all, the pharmaceutical company has to find some way to compensate themselves for all the travelling their employees will do when engaging in the meticulous process of informing other provinces and finalizing approval of their drugs. As a result, the consumers will be targeted to provide the respite to these pharmaceutical companies. This will also lead to the development of another menace--variations in price will easily compel people to smuggle medicines from provinces selling drugs at a low price, giving way to a parallel business that will inescapably be marred with tainting and adulteration of these medicines.
Human lives are at stake, and our federal government is complacent. But, then again this is the kind of governance that can be expected from uneducated, avaricious, and iniquitous leaders.
