1 (31st Session) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SECRETARIAT ———— “QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWERS AND THEIR REPLIES” to be asked at a sitting of the National Assembly to be held on Thursday, the 1st April, 2021 33. *Mr. Muhammad Afzal Khokhar: (Deferred during 28th Session) Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has taken notice that buying power of public at large of medicines is significantly decreased since the inception of the incumbent Government; if so, the details thereof; (b) what steps are being taken by the Government to decrease the prices of medicines forthwith; and (c) average prices of essential / life saving medicines as on May, 2018 and detail of prices at present? Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination: (a) Federal Government and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan are cognizant of the impact of increase in prices of drugs and it has been tried at best to allow increase at minimum level as compared to increase in manufacturing/import cost of drugs. Its impact is much lesser than non­ availability of drugs. Prices of drugs are mostly lower in Pakistan as compared to average prices in the region i.e. Bangladesh, Sri­lanka and India. (b) Following steps have been taken to reduce prices of medicines:— 2 (i) Regulation imposed: Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, with the approval of Federal Cabinet notified a Drug Pricing Policy­2018 which provides a transparent mechanism for fixation, decrease & increase in MRPs of drugs. (ii) Reduction in MRPs of drugs: Maximum Retail Prices (MRPs) of 562 drugs have been reduced and notified after approval by the Federal Government. (iii) Public notice in newspaper: DRAP has published public notice of reduced prices in national newspapers for information of public. Toll free number and email address have been given in public notice to lodge complaints if any pharmaceutical company or retailer sells any drug at price more than notified. (iv) Encouragement of production of generics: (a) Manufacturing of generic drugs is being encourged and facilitated, as by and large the generic products are cheaper than the branded drugs. Priority and all facilitations are being given to the manufacturers of generic drugs and to make their investment fruitful in the shortest possible time. For that purpose, meetings of the various boards are being held frequently. (b) Priority is also being given to grant registration to new licenses/ new sections to increase production of drugs which increase competition in the market which in turn results in the reduction of prices of drugs. (v) Coordination with provincial health authorities to monitor prices in the market Under Section 6 of the Drugs Act, 1976, the storage and sale of drugs in the market is regulated by the Provincial Governments, therefore, DRAP has advised the Provincial Health Authorities to 3 act under the law against the companies who increase prices of drugs more than approved prices. (c) Maximum Retail Prices of essential medicines as on May, 2018 is placed at Annex­A and Maximum Retail Prices of the same medicines at present is placed at Annex­B. (Annexures have been placed in the National Assembly Library) 47. *Ms. Tahira Aurangzeb: (Deferred during 28th Session) Will the Minister for Maritime Affairs be pleased to state: (a) the number of Ships can be anchored simultaneously on Port Qasim and KPT, Karachi alongwith the detail of types and volume thereof; and (b) the number of foreign Ships anchored on the said ports during the last five years alongwith the detail of country-wise types and volume thereof? Minister for Maritime Affairs (Syed Ali Haider Zaidi): (a) —————————————————————————————— KPT’s Reply PQA Reply —————————————————————————————— i. KPT has three (03) Container Number of terminals / number of ships can Terminals at East, West and South berth simultaneously at PQA:­ Wharves which can accommodate 5 to 6 vessels (depending upon their LOA and draft) i. Total Number of Terminals: 14 Numbers ii. Oil Piers­I, II & III can accommodate ii. Number of Ships that can berth one (01) Oil Tanker each. Presently simultaneously at PQA: 21 Numbers OP­III is under repair. iii. Two (02) Tankers can also be iii. Number of Ships (large) that can berth accommodated at DB­I & DB­II. simultaneously at PQA: 18 Numbers iv. 12 Bulk vessels can be accommodated iv. Please note, Total Number of ships at KPT berths at East & West Wharves, depends upon the LOA of vessel. berths No. 1­5, 10­17, 18­20 & 21­25 (depending upon their LOA and draft). —————————————————————————————— 4 (b) Karachi Port Trust ——————————————————————————————————————————— CARGO 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 CATEGO- Ships Volume Ships Volume Ships Volume Ships Volume Ships Volume RY (Million (Million (Million (Million (Million Tons) Tons) Tons) Tons) Tons) ——————————————————————————————————————————— Container 738 21.85 757 22.92 973 25.17 778 23.66 744 22.85 Tanker 559 15.45 542 15.32 577 15.53 505 14.15 414 9.80 Bulk 222 910 244 11.11 242 11.29 143 7.30 154 7.84 Gen Cargo 314 3.61 308 3.00 259 2.59 170 1.72 156 1.34 Car 61 0.05 71 0.15 80 0.10 57 0.06 25 0.01 Carrier Misc 47 ­ 76 ­ 45 ­ 44 ­ 32 ­ ————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Grand 1941 50.05 1998 52.49 2176 54.69 1697 46.89 1525 41.84 Total ————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Port Qasim Authority Reply ———————————————————————————————————————————————— VESSEL TYPE 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 YEAR WISE VOLUME ———————————————————————————————————————————————— CONTAINER 638 576 602 522 530 Year wise volume of TANKERS 286 292 291 230 245 the cargo for last five CHEMICALS 130 187 138 139 115 years at Annex-I BULK/BREAK BULK 212 294 339 428 430 L.NG/LPG 110 57 186 173 200 ———————————————————————————————————————————————— TOTAL 1.376 1,406 1,556 1,492 1,520 ———————————————————————————————————————————————— (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) 52. *Syed Mehmood Shah: (Deferred during 28th Session) Will the Minister for Water Resources be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that Government of Balochistan had submitted the proposal to pave the both sides of Putt Feeder Canal to Government of Pakistan; (b) if so, what steps are being taken by the Government in this regard; (c) whether the Government does not intend to pave the said canal; if so, the reasons thereof; and (d) the steps being taken by the Government in this regard? 5 Minister for Water Resources: (a), (b), (c), & (d) This Ministry is not aware of any such proposal. Since it is a Provincial matter, this Ministry has referred the question to Government of Balochistan, for further necessary action (copy attached). (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) 54. *Sardar Ayaz Sadiq: (Deferred during 28th Session) Will the Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state: (a) the name of the training institutions/academies which are working under the Division for capacity building of its employees at present; (b) the details of teaching faculty of said institutions alongwith their qualifications and experiences; (c) the syllabus being taught in said institutions; (d) the institution and post-wise number of employees trained during the financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20; (e) the institution-wise total expenditures incurred thereon; and (f) the steps being taken by the Government to improve the institutional capacity of said institutions/academies? Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination: (a) Training of employees other than health personnel’s comes under the domain of the Establishment Division/ Cabinet Division through STI. For health personnel’s Health Services Academy, Islamabad is under administrative control of this division. (b) There are eight (8) regular faculty members and six (6) contractual faculty members detail of their qualification is placed at Annex-A. 6 (c) Following courses are being offered. (i) PhD in Public Health (ii) Ms Public Health (iii) Health Management & Economics iv. Family Medicine (d) Health Services Academy Islamabad is established since 1988. And a lot of students have been trained during these years in several courses offered by the academy. However consolidated summary of enrolled students of HAS since 2018 to till date is placed at Annex-B. (e) Approximately 100 million 95% is generated by HSA own source. (f) Initially Health Services Academy was working as institute affiliated with Quaid­e­Azam University. In recent past this has been given a status of degree awarding institute recongnized by Higher Education Commission. (Annexures have been placed in the National Assembly Library) 95. *Ms. Naureen Farooq Ibrahim: (Deferred during 28th Session) Will the Minister for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination be pleased to state whether the Pakistan has imported the masks, ventilators and other equipments relating to Health; if so, the detail thereof? Minister for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination: Under the auspices of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was assigned the task of procurement of COVID commodities including masks and ventilators M/o NHSR&C is providing technical support to NCOC by preparing health system needs based on various modelling, carried out by different modelers/ experts. After clearance of NCOC, M/o NHSR&C duly forwards the health system needs national demands to NDMA for procurement and further distribution among provinces and federating areas. In the initial phase of pandemic PPEs ventilators and other equipment were imported from abroad through NDMA to meet the country requirement 7 to fight against the deadly coronas virus. Currently all Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including masks are manufactured within Pakistan. Lists of COVID­19 commodities, procured by NDMA (extracted from NDMA website) and by M/o NHSR&C are enclosed at Annex-A and Annex-B respectively.