Traditional system of medicine in Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan traditional medicines has been a strong part of our cultural heritage and has played a significant role in providing health care to a large portion of the population especially Tibb-e-unani and Homoeopathy. Efforts are made for the development of comprehensive policy and strategies for utilization of traditional medicine in the mainframe health care system which includes education, selection of essential medicine, extent of regulatory measures, criteria for Quality Control and Quality Assurance, Measures to Integrate Traditional Medicine into the main stream of the Health Care System, cultivation, Preservation and sustainable use of commonly used herbs at Primary Health Care Level, Research and Development, Intellectual property rights and protection of indigenous knowledge. Recently Prime Minister has approved the Draft Bill to regulate the manufacture, sale, storage, import and export of these medicines. Their current official status e.g. acceptability, recognition etc in the country, various aspects of the suggestive policy and its strategies for implementation and salient features of the regulatory measures proposed are described and discussed. The main purpose of this presentation is to share our experience to seek your feedback and valuable inputs to develop our objectives in accordance with the international standards.