In his recent press statement, Health Minister told the reporters that about 40% of the medicine is smuggled into the country. He also informed that about 40% of the medicine used in the country is of low-quality. According to him, there is a network of medicine manufacturers in Pakistan that are exclusively manufacturing medicine for Afghanistan and this low-quality medicine is then smuggled to Afghanistan through a number of provinces of the country. After the medicine enters the country, it is later transferred to Kabul and other major cities of the country and it is all done in the darkness of night, hidden from security personnel. He also acknowledged that there are a number of medicine manufacturers in the country who are producing low quality medicine.

There is no doubt that regarding the medical facilities, we are living in the poorest circumstances. There are some private hospitals that are having good buildings and external appearance, but their performance has so much disappointed the public that in case of any serious ailment, people soon decide to go to Pakistan or India and those who can afford, to other developed countries of the world. It is a sad reality that our local doctors are not well-qualified and thus they are not much able to diagnose the disease and then prescribe the relevant medicine but most serious concern in health sector is the non-availability of quality medicines.

Both doctors and patients are found to be complaining that the medicine generally available in Afghanistan are very low-standard and it is the reason why, they never give the desired results. First, there is no standard pharmaceutical manufacturer in the country and very recently, a couple of them have started functioning but it would take years until they bring the quality of their products to the international standards. Secondly, medicine distributors try hard to import medicine which should be cheap and they should be able to earn handsome and lofty profit out of it. With this thinking in mind, medicines from very low-standard factories of Pakistan and India are imported and the evident result is the unsatisfactory performance in the cure and recovery of patients. There are some factories and medicines which are not banned and not openly allowed to be sold in market in India and Pakistan are usually found in the medical stores of Afghanistan. On the other hand, majority of illiterate people don’t know about the expiry date and other issues of medicine and thus Afghanistan is the most active market for these expired medicine. Similarly, there is no control and check on the importers and distributors of medicine in the country and they do whatever suits their objective of making more and more profit.

This is also a fact that there is no regulatory body in the country to check the quality and rates of medicines being sold in the country. It is the reason that doctors always prefer the quality medicine being imported from Pakistan, India or Iran. There are number of pharmaceutical companies manufacturing medicines in the country but there is not present any authority to check the quality of their products. At the same time, these companies are given absolute freehand to decide upon the prices of their medicine. They have this authority either by pleasing the authorities of the concerned ministry or it is a fact that they are not checked by anyone. Although the said minister has claimed that there are 200 registered medicine companies whose activities are tightly controlled by the ministry but it is a fact that the ground realities seem to be absolutely different than this. Although the ministry claims they have cancelled the registration of 800 companies who were involved in the import of low-quality medicine but how it is made sure that these companies are not functioning even without the registration of the health ministry.

Another problem in this regard is the medical practice of large number of unskilled and uncertified doctors who claim to be doctors but they don’t have any degree to support their claim. Majority of them have worked in pharmacies or have experience of working as a nurse in a hospital where they have learned some basic skills and got acquaintance with some medicine. But these so-called doctors are never able to diagnose and handle the sensitive case of patients. It is the reason that, in case of complicated diseases, our patients prefer to go abroad. These doctors are also responsible for using low-quality medicine as they can earn much better income by giving low-quality medicine to the patients. 

In short, the public has been left on the ill plans and objectives of a group of medicine importers and distributors and those who are responsible for controlling them are ignoring all these under the dose of the bribe, which they receive on regular basis. The condition may not be much disturbing to the rich who can easily go abroad for medical purposes but the poor public is suffering a lot and it is hoped that top government officials should check the situation immediately and take necessary corrective measures.