paam finalizes policy
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PAAM finalizes policy draft for independent altern…

Lahore: An important consultative meeting of the Core Committee of the Pakistan Association of Alternative Medicine (PAAM) was held, in which the “Policy Draft and Working Paper” was finalized to make the country’s alternative medicine sector namely Homeopathy, Herbal, and Unani economically self-reliant and to transform it into an international industry. During this meeting, PAAM Core Committee members Dr. Tariq Mahmood Chaudhry and former Director of Homeopathy at the Punjab Health Department, Dr. Jamil Akhtar Ghauri, met with PAAM President Kashif Aslam Malik and held deep consultations on the framework of the proposed federal ministry.

According to the text of the policy draft, more than 80 percent of the world’s population relies on alternative and natural methods of treatment. China earns an annual export profit of 60 billion dollars from this sector, and India earns over 5 billion dollars in valuable foreign exchange. In contrast, despite having abundant natural resources and hundreds of thousands of qualified doctors, Pakistan accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the global market due to the lack of an independent federal ministry. The working paper prepared by PAAM highlights that establishing an autonomous federal ministry could be the fastest way to pull Pakistan out of its economic crisis and boost exports. The PAAM leadership has presented three-year economic targets to the government and parliament, setting the export target at 200 million dollars for the first year, 500 million dollars for the second year, and aiming to exceed 1.5 billion dollars in the third year through international trade agreements and Business-to-Business (B2B) partnerships.

Another key feature of this policy draft is that commercial herb farming will be initiated nationwide under the new ministry, directly benefiting the rural economy and local farmers. Furthermore, this initiative aims to eliminate Pakistan’s reliance on expensive imported raw materials for the allopathic industry, making the country truly economically independent.

During the meeting, the PAAM leadership emphasized that the alternative medicine sector is facing a severe crisis due to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan’s (DRAP) hyper-focus on allopathic brands and bureaucratic red tape. They noted that introducing a one-window operation under an autonomous ministry would ensure medicine quality complies with World Health Organization (WHO) and International Herb Pharmacopeia standards, while also reducing public healthcare expenditures at the government level by up to 50 percent through the provision of affordable alternative medicines.

Following the completion of the policy draft, PAAM has demanded a joint emergency meeting of the Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Health and Commerce, the formation of a dedicated task force, and a special export package for alternative medicine manufacturers. The Chairman and Core Committee of PAAM reaffirmed their commitment to presenting this policy paper to the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Federal Cabinet very soon to make the country self-sufficient on both economic and medical fronts.

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