By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD - Minister of State for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar has said that there is a need for legislation and campaign for creating awareness among people about nutrition and malnutrition at national level.
Provinces are required to legislate for mother and child’s health care while the ministry of national health services would seek their recommendations for legislations, she added.
She was speaking at a meeting of National Assembly’s standing committee on health services, regulations and coordination held here the other day to discuss issues concerning nutrition and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC). It was presided over by Khalid Hussain Magsi.
Deploring that the trend of breastfeeding was decreasing with each passing day, she said that food insecurity, micronutrient malnutrition, inadequate access to clean water, poverty and poor women's education are the major factors behind malnutrition.
Recalling that the health ministry has been devolved to the provinces under 18th Constitutional Amendment, the minister said although regulatory body exists in the capital, the issue of health care is the prime responsibility of provinces.
The members of the committee expressed serious concern over health situation of mother and child and said that many programmes are launched with the help of donor agencies for this purpose, but their effects did not trickledown at the grass roots level. The minister said that the donor agencies are not giving any cash amount to the ministry, but they only provide equipments and medicine for the projects.
PMDC: The committee also discussed the issues relating to the PMDC and recommended that management committee should resolve them within a period of 120 days from the date on which ordinance was promulgated.