Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi on Sunday has 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 the 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 non-availability of this essential vaccine in the Islamabad’s Government hospitals and summoned the senior officials of both these organizations on January 09, 2024 to unearth the root cause of the situation. He had also directed the 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 these organizations i.e.