PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has urged the federal government to allow it through the provincial governor to extend the health-related laws in force in KP to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata)toprovidefacilitiestothe patients by regulating the health institutions and improving the health care delivery system there.

`The provincial government is seeking to extend six health laws to Pata to be able to regulate hospitals and medical education to benefit patients as well as upgrade the underand postgraduate medical education.

Enforcement of the laws is urgently required,` sources said.

They said that the government, through the Home and Tribal Affairs Department, had sent a letter to the Federal Ministry of States and Frontier Regions to extend the law toPata. They said that the governorhad the authority to extend the laws to Pata with the approval of the President of Pakistan. The law is more likely to get approval and subsequent extension, they said.

The sources said that according to the 1973 Constitution the Swat, Chitral, Shangla, Buner, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Malakand and some parts of Kohistan were parts of Pata where the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government wasn`t authorised to take any action against the sale of illegal medicines, clinics, operation theatres, hospitals and blood banks.

The laws which aren`t extended to Pata include Safe Blood Transfusion Act1999; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission Act, 2015; The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Breast-Feeding and Child Nutrition Act, 2015; and The Khyber PakhtunkhwaFood Safety Authority Act, 2014.

The government wants to extend these laws to Pata to benefit people of those areas who had voted for the members of the provincial assembly in the election and deserved benefits of the laws, they said.

The sources said that the government had got full-fledged health departments and officials in each and every district of Pata, but in the absence of the laws they could not deliver as per wishes of the local people.

They said that the officials who were authorised by the laws to take disciplinary action against illegal medical stores and other health care outlets in other districts couldn`t invoke the laws in Pata.

The letter, which is being processed, has also requested the governor to issue orders for extension of the laws because in their absence the health department has been facing administrative, legal and financial problems in Pata.The matter came to the fore when the government was in the process of devolving the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) to the nine medical colleges and their as many affiliated hospitals of the province.

It was pointed out that the notification regarding the PGMPs devolution could not be enforced in Saidu Medical College because it was located in Pata.

The sources said that a former secretary had pointed out that at least six health-related laws could be implemented in Pata`s districts to improve health care facilities to the semi-tribal areas.

They said that the present government had passed the laws to bring reforms in the health sector in the province, but it couldn`t do anything in Pata until the laws tool< effect there. They said that a summary in this regard was sent by the health department after a thorough research about the health-related legislation and their legal position in Pata.