PMDC seminar: TV promotes quackery, say doctors

Speakers call for revision of ‘quack-friendly’ regulations.

LAHORE:

The widespread and illegal use of advertising to promote medical products of questionable value promotes quackery in the country, said speakers on a seminar organised by the Anti Quackery Committee of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Saturday.

“I’ve found that the main source of the promotion of quackery is our media,” said guest speaker Dr Syed Shahzad Ali. “There are lots of ads for fake doctors and quacks and even programmes about them.”

“The PMA and PMDC are usually at loggerheads so I’m happy to see that they are fighting against quackery as one unit,” Dr Ali added.

The PMDC, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and the Pakistan Dental Association are currently working on a campaign to raise awareness about quackery and end unauthorised quasi-medical practices, on the directions of the Supreme Court. The launch of a “tamper proof” registration certificate for medical practitioners by the PMDC to stop forgery was also discussed at the seminar.

Fatima Memorial Dental College principal Dr Professor Yaqoob Baig said quackery flourished alongside ignorance. “The strength of the quacks is in the fact that a majority of the population is financially weak and uneducated,” he said. Bad legislation and legal procedures were also to their advantage, he said. Medical school graduates who were poorly trained were just as bad as quacks, he said. He said the issue should be tackled at the district level.

Dr Baig said that the Drugs Act of 1976, which governs the import, manufacture and sale of drugs, prohibited the advertisement of any drug, remedy, treatment or offer of treatment for any disease. “Unfortunately, 15,000 medical stores in Lahore are not fully abiding by this law,” he said.

Sajjad Ahmad, a senior producer at Pakistan Television, said that the issue should get more coverage in the media, especially in entertainment. “Our current TV plays are all about saas bahoo issues,” he said. “The issue [of quackery] should be highlighted in the media, especially in prime-time entertainment, so that our general public can see how dangerous quacks can be.”

PMDC Chairman Dr Ali Farhan said that quackery violated Article 9 of the Constitution, which says that no Pakistani can be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with the law. “It is the moral responsibility of the educated class to educate the financially weak and uneducated to save them from quacks,” he said.

He said that the committee had caught two and jailed two fake doctors: a Dr Capt Ejazul Haq and Dr Nazarat Kiani, who ran Bismillah Hospital, Talagand. Executive District Officer (Health) Umer Farooq ridiculed quacks as those who claimed to know everything about the human body and to be able to cure all ailments. “It is impossible to know everything about the human body,” he said. “The specialists cannot claim to have absolute knowledge about their fields. How can it be expected from quacks?”

Gujranwala director of health services Dr Nisaar Ahmad Cheema said the laws needed to be reviewed. “The whole system is run by untrained quacks that have made quack-friendly laws. These need to be amended so that no quack may escape punishment for what he has done,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2011.