Looming travel restrictions
Years and years of failed policies have started the onset of looming travel restrictions on Pakistani nationals
It’s not just the Financial Action Task Force team, the American State Department or the major donors and aid giving parties that Pakistan needs to satisfy on prompt basis to avert the risk of being ‘grey-listed’ or to avoid poor rankings . Years and years of failed policies, programmes left incomplete and the deteriorating performance of the health sector has started to reap its fruit in the form of looming travel restrictions on Pakistani nationals that will further isolate the country at international forums and among other nations.
Persistent failure of health programmes to achieve targeted objectives has irked the international donor and funding agencies to reconsider their pledges for the country. Unfortunately, this time around the government cannot seek support from the countries it enjoys favourable ties with. As unlike terrorism, where presence of cross-border elements and the involvement of external forces cannot be denied, failure in improvement of health indicators are, to a major extent, a failure on the part of the federal and provincial health departments.
The indication of a ban comes in the backdrop of the launch of the National Diabetes Survey that estimates more than 26 per cent of the population suffering from Type-2 diabetes, with the highest prevalence of the disease in Sindh, followed by Punjab. Type-2 diabetes is also identified to have a positive correlation with hypertension and blood pressure. In the category of communicable diseases, Pakistan after Afghanistan is the only country left which despite having regular polio drives still had cases reported from Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces during the ongoing year. Considering the dismal performance of the public health sector, government health services need massive reforms and a revamp, which are the need of the hour to avert the otherwise nearer-than-expected global travel ban.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2018.
Persistent failure of health programmes to achieve targeted objectives has irked the international donor and funding agencies to reconsider their pledges for the country. Unfortunately, this time around the government cannot seek support from the countries it enjoys favourable ties with. As unlike terrorism, where presence of cross-border elements and the involvement of external forces cannot be denied, failure in improvement of health indicators are, to a major extent, a failure on the part of the federal and provincial health departments.
The indication of a ban comes in the backdrop of the launch of the National Diabetes Survey that estimates more than 26 per cent of the population suffering from Type-2 diabetes, with the highest prevalence of the disease in Sindh, followed by Punjab. Type-2 diabetes is also identified to have a positive correlation with hypertension and blood pressure. In the category of communicable diseases, Pakistan after Afghanistan is the only country left which despite having regular polio drives still had cases reported from Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces during the ongoing year. Considering the dismal performance of the public health sector, government health services need massive reforms and a revamp, which are the need of the hour to avert the otherwise nearer-than-expected global travel ban.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2018.