ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: The unethical and perilous health-related advertisements in the electronic media have finally caught the attention of the government which plans to outlaw them.

A number of television channels including the state-run PTV are airing documentaries promising increase in height, quick reduction in weight and treatment for diabetes, Hepatitis C and cancer.

Taking serious note of the increasing trend of such advertisment offering remedies for different ailments, the Ministry of Health and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Tuesday decided to take joint action against the channels propagating these unethical practices.

They agreed to convene a meeting of cable operators and TV channel owners to apprise them of the seriousness of the issue and ask them to discontinue the practice immediately.

A subcommittee comprising officers of Pemra and the health ministry has also been constituted to work out the modus operandi for proceeding against the violators.

“There is a need to take immediate steps to stem the tide of advertising which offers quick fix solutions for different diseases,” remarked Secretary Health Syed Anwar Mahmood during the meeting.

Pemra Chairman Iftikhar Rashid pledged all-out support of the authority in stopping the telecast of misleading programmes about cures which were injurious to health. Such content also encouraged the public to spend money on drugs which have no therapeutic value.

The meeting was informed that the health ministry had developed a list of channels that were violating the Drug Act 1976 and allowing health-related advertising without getting no objection certificate (NOC) from the health ministry.

Violators of Section 27 of the Drug Act are liable to both fine and imprisonment.

It was decided that the health ministry would inform Pemra about the violations by different channels and action would be taken in accordance with the law.

Though for channels such extended commercials running sometimes to half-an-hour are an easy way to achieve revenue targets, there has been a debate going on ethical aspect of such advertisements.

“This is height of unethical medical practice,” deplored Dr Abbas Hayat, Head of the Pathology Department Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) while talking to Dawn.

“Had instant treatment of hepatitis, diabetes or cancer been discovered, it would have been a miracle in the medical history,” he said.

He asked the government to check these commercials which he believed had also over burdened the hospitals in the country, as scores of patients are coming every day with declining health due to the use of unhealthy medicines.

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) President Dr Umar Ayub said that even advertisements of organ transplant had been posted on different websites in the country, when in the medical jurisprudence, advertisements of all sorts were considered unethical.

He suggested the government to launch a campaign and take stern action to check such tendency and expressed the hope that media would also show social responsibility by not allowing such advertising.