Health minister confident new laws will control infections

Says department formulated Punjab Hepatitis Bill 2017 to prevent spread

LAHORE: Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir chaired the seventh meeting of the District Quality Control Board. The moot was held at the Directorate General of Health on Cooper Road.

Addressing the meeting, the minister said that according to the vision of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government was making every effort to provide the best healthcare facilities to the people.

In this regard, the Primary and Secondary Health Department had formulated the Punjab Hepatitis Bill 2017 to prevent the spread of the disease and to regulate the Barber and Beauty Salon Licensing System (CBSL).

This bill was devised to standardise both public and private sectors and would be useful in the Hepatitis and infection control programme. Further, he said that authorities must adopt a merit policy in each step to attain the best and desired results.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Ali Jan Khan, Drugs Control Additional Secretary Muhammad Sohail, Punjab Chief Drug Controller M Munawar Hayat and other officers of the Provincial Drug Control Unit, Provincial Quality Control Board, Chief Drugs Controller Office and Secretaries District Quality Control Board were also present at the meeting. Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare department Ali Jan Khan reviewed the monthly progress of all districts.

A training session was conducted on the working and system of the Centralised Barber and Beauty Salon Licencing system (CBSL) for Secretaries DQCB and a brief detail was given about the Hepatitis and infection control programme.

Drug Control Additional Secretary Muhammad Sohail underlined that 479 cases were decided by DQCB over the last month. He added a decision of permission for prosecution was given in 282 cases and a warning was issued in 139 of them, while permission was granted to register FIRs granted in 10 matters and 127 cases were adjourned. At the end of the meeting Punjab CDC Licensing Authority’s Muhammad Munawar Hayat present the data of CDSL and said 1,069,085 licenses had been printed to date.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2017.