Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal, speaking at a pharmacovigilance workshop, said Pakistan’s health system is far from ideal and called for urgent healthcare reform that shifts the focus from treatment to prevention. He stressed that global health systems have moved toward preventing illness, with lifestyle medicine and non‑drug approaches playing a growing role in keeping people healthy rather than only treating disease.
According to Mustafa Kamal, the lack of a functioning primary care and public health infrastructure has left hospitals overwhelmed. Healthcare starts outside the hospital, he said, and without basic measures like clean water and local sewage treatment the burden on tertiary facilities will not ease. He warned that roughly 70 percent of illnesses arise from contaminated water and that access to safe water could reduce hospital caseloads substantially.
Minister Kamal highlighted the need for community-level sewage treatment and local systems to prevent disease transmission, noting that water flowing from Gilgit Baltistan to Karachi is contributing to the spread of infections. He argued that prevention and precautionary measures must be the core of national strategy, and urged citizens to adopt healthier lifestyles since lifestyle medicine is closer to natural systems and can reduce reliance on pharmaceuticals.
Looking ahead, Mustafa Kamal offered a bold prediction that the world may largely overcome cancer within a decade while warning that debates over vaccine permissibility could linger in some quarters. He confirmed that the National Institute of Health is developing a healthcare management system and emphasized that implementing meaningful healthcare reform will require doctors who are prepared to take defined roles in public health and preventive care.
