ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi on Sunday directed the heads of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) to take urgent steps for ensuring fast-track availability of the anti-rabies vaccines in government hospitals of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and remove all bureaucratic bottlenecks in this regard.

It may be recalled that in response to a public complaint received recently in his office, he took a serious notice of the unavailability of this essential vaccine in Islamabad’s government hospitals and summoned the senior officials of both these organisations on January 9 to unearth the root cause of the situation.

He had also directed Drap to conduct a thorough probe as to why the NIH was not manufacturing this essential vaccine.

As a follow-up measure, the office of Wafaqi Mohtasib immediately issued a notice to both the organisations - NIH and Drap - and the registrar of the Wafaqi Mohtasib initiated a probe into the matter.

It was revealed that apart from lengthy official procedures, bureaucratic delays, gross negligence, mismanagement and fluctuation of the dollar rate resulted in this unfortunate situation.

The ombudsman directed that responsibility might be fixed for the shortage of this essential vaccine and necessary steps be initiated for avoiding recurrence of such incidents in future.

The matter is being vigorously followed by the Office of the Wafaqi Mohtasib and all stakeholders have assured that they would spare no effort in this regard.

It may also be informed that two hearings have already been held in the Wafaqi Mohtasib’s office which were attended by the representatives of the organisations concerned.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2024