Legislative Gaps in Implementation of Health related Millennium Development Goals: a case study from Pakistan

Numerous health legislations concerning child mortality, maternal health and life-threatening diseases such as polio and tuberculosis are crafted in the health sector of Pakistan. A critical assessment of health legislations points to their in-effective or sub-optimal implementation. By engaging with the concept of public law, there is a strong relationship of public health and health legislations. While the basic purpose of health legislations is to craft and enforce essential health legislations for improving public health, an examination of health legislations across Pakistan indicate an extensive health engagement which is facing certain challenges indicating traditional health practices, enforcement constraints arising due to political compulsions and complexities, and systematic problems in the health sector, reflecting issue of governance. Through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews held with policy-makers, senior health officials private health entities and parliamentarian tasks forces on millennium development goals, this study engages with health-sector legislations. In so doing, it focuses on the problematic health sector and interventions. It is observed that unless an overarching legislative framework and a shift from programmatic approach to a human rights approach is adopted, the targets of millennium development goals 4, 5 and 6 would remain off-track in Pakistan.