KARACHI, Oct 10: In view of the government’s failure to implement the Mental Health Ordinance 2001, which is being considered as a major hurdle in spreading awareness about psychiatric issues and proper treatment to psychiatric patients, speakers at a seminar urged the authorities to review amendments made to the mental health laws and play a proactive role in enforcement of the ordinance.

The seminar on Mental Health Ordinance, 2001, was organised by the Pakistan Association for Mental Health on Friday to mark the World Mental Health Day.

The experts called for immediate enforcement of mental health laws and revision of some amendments made to the ordinance, otherwise people suffering mental illnesses would continue to be ridiculed and subjected to social stigma.

Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, underlined the need for providing protection and due treatment to prisoners considered to be suffering from mental illness. Those under supervision of psychiatrists must not be allowed to be condemned or isolated in the so-called ‘Charia Ward’.

He deplored government’s inaction on implementation of the ordinance but added that citizens and professionals should also make ways for the dispensation of right treatment to the affected people instead of looking only to the government for the prevention of mental and related disorders. All the stake-holders, including psychiatrists, lawyers, patients and their guardians as well as the media, should coordinate to get justice to the mentally-ill people and for implementation of the relevant laws in the right spirit, he observed.

Although there had been certain shortcomings, he said he personally felt that a couple of board of visitors, established under the mental health ordinance, had got significant room to perform effectively under the existing laws.

Chairman of the Sindh Board of Visitors Dr Ghaus Mohammad discussed the board’s role in providing protection to the mentally-ill people and suggested that the laws be revisited and in line forums be constituted to implement the laws.

He said that he visited the institutions handling psychiatric patients in hospitals and jails of Karachi and sent a report carrying observations and suggestions to the federal health minister. But, he said, it was unfortunate that any feedback or support in this regard from the government was still awaited.

Some good legal provisions available in the Indian Mental Health Ordinance (1987) be picked up and incorporated in the ordinance, he suggested and called for giving it the status of an Act.

Advocate Faisal Siddiqui while discussing the strategies for implementation of mental health ordinance said that the piece of legislation available despite little flaws was still a good tool that could be enforced truly by sensitising the policy-makers and other stakeholders.

He lamented the abandoning of the Federal Mental Health Authority, which could hold only one meeting during its tenure ending in 2005.

Only two boards of visitors, one each for Sindh and Balochistan, had been established so far, he said, while blaming the government for not setting up the boards in other provinces.

Calling for immediate implementation of the ordinance, he observed that there was need to publicize the laws even among the psychiatrists. He was of the view that the incidence of ill-treatment meted out to patients could be reduced if the courts of laws were provided with well-researched information.

Earlier, Prof Dr S. Haroon Ahmad, president of the Pakistan Association for Mental Health, opening the debate said that there were a lot of activities needed to be undertaken to develop adequate facilities for mental health diagnosis and treatment. He expressed hope that the government would ensure a political will required to provide improved health facilities and quality of life for citizens.