بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Hizb ut-Tahrir / Wilayah Pakistan has
issued a Publicized Policy Position (PPP) regarding ensuring health is a right
and not a luxury, for all the citizens of the soon to arrive Khilafah,
regardless of religion, school of thought, gender or race.
Preamble: Democracy has made good
health care a luxury
The state of Pakistan's health care is
appalling with widespread, preventable life-threatening disease, inadequate
patient health education, poor unaudited treatment protocols that are not based
on medical evidence, lack of an integrated health system with primary,
secondary and tertiary facilities, poor local clinical training and the absence
of strong, original medical research strongly linked to local disease and
health requirements. Currently, the private sector accounts for approximately
80% of all outpatient visits. Domination by the private sector has converted
health care from a service into a business and health care into a luxury, not a
right. Increasing costs of private doctor’s fees, medicines and diagnostic
tests have made affordable treatment difficult for most people in Pakistan.
This awful state of affairs reflects
attributes of the model for Pakistan's current rulers, the foremost
exponent of Democracy, the US. In the US too, Democracy has converted patients
into customers and health into a luxury. Democracy has privatized health care
and drug research to benefit small elite, who now profiteer from the misery of
millions. By privatization, both medical drugs and medical care is now
unaffordable for most of the world and even for many within the Western world.
Medical insurance companies were formed to help make medical payments, but they
themselves have added to the problem, allowing the private hospitals to raise
their prices further. Medical debt is now cited as the single biggest factor in
62% of all personal bankruptcy in the United States. Fifty million Americans do
not have health insurance, as they cannot even afford that. Approximately
18,000 of this fifty million die every year because they do not have health
insurance, so cannot afford treatment. This is whilst a small elite represented
by medical facility providers, drug companies and health insurance companies
profiteer immensely from the misery of millions, through privatization of
health, drug patency laws and insurance laws, all secured by Democracy, the “Best
Revenge” of the gray-suited men on the masses.
This pitiful situation in the world is
a far cry from the time of the Khilafah, where the state supported a strong
predominately public health sector, in accordance with the commands of
RasulAllah (saw),
for example during the Ghazwah Khandaq he came across wounded soldiers and he
ordered a tent be assembled to provide medical care. Public hospitals or
“Bimiristan” (Abode of the Sick) were a great relief for the people. They
served all people regardless of their race, religion, citizenship, or gender.
The al-Mansuri Hospital, established in Cairo in 1283, had accommodation for
8,000 patients. There were two nursing attendants for each patient, who did
everything for his/her comfort and convenience and every patient had his/her
own bed, bedding and vessel for eating. This hospital treated in-patients and
out-patients giving them free food and medicine. There were mobile dispensaries
and clinics for the proper medical care of the disabled and those living in the
remote areas.
Knowledge was free without restrictions
or patenting, either of process or product, allowing reverse engineering as
well as explosive innovation and development. Medical faculties had a strong
representation within university as well as allied facilities for clinical
research in hospital and out-patient settings. Muslims doctors preceded the
world in medical research by decades if not hundreds of years in fields as
diverse as ophthalmological surgery to cardiac care. With world leading health
care centres, medical personnel and medicines, rulers of foreign nations used
to migrate to the Khilafah for treatment as the favoured destination, setting a
strong precedent for the concept of medical tourism.
B. Political Considerations: Health provision under democracy is heath for
the wealthy for the benefit of the extremely wealthy
B1.
Democracy privatizes health, making it a luxury, not a right of the people upon
the state
Democracy
has privatized health care, allowing small elite to profiteer from it through
providing medical facilities and then create medical insurance companies to
profiteer from the fact that most of the people cannot afford private medical
care. Democracy separates religion from life's affairs, which is secularism. It
hands over law making to the people of influence and wealth who can now make
law to further increase their influence and wealth. The dominant aspect of
capitalism is now freedom of ownership which allows the elite group to
successively privatize the rights of the masses, so that they can benefit from
them as the masses have nowhere else to go. So alongside privatization of
energy interests, such as petrol and electricity, Democracy has added to the
misery of the people by advocating complete privatization of medical care
facilities and drug research. Under Democracy, people are financially crushed
by private medical facilities, parasitic insurance companies and drug
companies. It is privatization that has led to the huge concentration of
wealth. Even through the current global economic crisis, the wealthiest 1% has
become even wealthier, whilst hundreds of millions have become jobless and
homeless. This fanatical drive for privatization without consideration of the
people's right directly led to the Wall Street Movement with the people
proclaiming “We are the 99%.” As such the central pillar for Democracy,
“freedom of ownership” is actually “deprivation of ownership” and its
“privatization” is “usurping the right of the people.”
B2.
Democracy favours a small elite through patency laws
To
further the profits of the small elite, democracy has also privatized
knowledge, through patency laws as the result of Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR), allowing the small elite to profiteer from it immensely through drug
companies. The discussion on Intellectual Property Rights arose after the
Industrial Revolution. After living in the shadow of the world’s leading
nation, the Khilafah, for centuries, and lost in its Dark Ages, Europe was
making advances in science and technology. However, in Democracy, with freedom
of ownership, the knowledge for the inventions is “owned.” The issue was
highlighted after a scientific exhibition in Vienna in 1873, in which many
potential exhibitors withdrew because they were worried their inventions would
be copied. Democracy sprung into action to protect its sponsors and now
jealously protects the intellectual activity of these companies at arriving at
that idea or invention. It secures the company the right to control access to
the invention and prevent others from using the invention. Therefore, no-one
can use the invention, and improve on it, taking science forward. Rather they
have to re-design and re-invent from scratch.
Patents
on pharmaceutical products and processes provide drug companies with monopolies
over the production of medicines, allowing them to fix prices at high rates to
maximise profits. The WTO-TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights)
Agreement is being used as a basis for enforcing patents. The cosignatory nations
are obliged to implement high standards of intellectual property protection,
including the minimum 20-year protection for patent rights, effectively
eliminating competition from local companies and allow for increased prices of
medicines beyond the reach of even more patients in the developing countries.
Life-saving drugs now cost thousands of dollars, which is beyond even the
dreams of millions in most of the world, who do not even earn a thousand
dollars in an entire year. And drugs related to diseases of wealth such as
obesity, Type II Diabetes, got take precedence over diseases of poverty such as
acute life-threatening chest infections and diarrhoeal illness.
C.
Legal Injunctions: Health and medical care is obliged on the state for all the
citizens, regardless of race, school of thought or gender
C1.
Medical care is a right of the citizens upon the Khilafah state
In
its Introduction to the Constitution, Hizb ut-Tahrir has adopted in
Article 125, “Health and medical care are from the obligations of the State
such that they must be readily available for the citizens, from the angle of
clinics and hospitals, and public utilities used for treatment by the Muslims.
So, medical treatment from this angle is part of the interests and public
utilities. The interests and public utilities must be undertaken by the State
since they are from the issues that the State is responsible over, in
accordance with the words of the Messenger: “The Imam (ruler) is a
guardian, and responsible (and will be questioned) for his subjects.” (reported
by Al-Bukhari from Abdullah Bin Umar). This text is general regarding the
responsibility of the State for health and medical care since they are part of
the obligatory responsibilities of the State... In his capacity as a
ruler, the Messenger sent a doctor to Ubay, and Umar (ra), the second righteous
Khalifah, called a doctor for Aslam to treat him, which are two
evidences that health and medical care are from the essential needs of the
citizens that the State must make sure are readily available for whoever needs
them.”
To
fund this explosion in health care, the Khilafah will restructure revenue
generation according to the Shariah rules to accelerate educational progress.
It will generate huge revenues from public properties such as energy and state
enterprises such as large scale construction and manufacture of machinery. It
will establish Kharaaj on agriculture and end the oppressive income and sales
tax that has strangled economic activity. It will also refuse to pay the
interest based loans from the colonialists and others, which eat a third of the
expenses of Pakistan as debt-servicing, in the knowledge that the loans have
been paid many times over due to interest. So, whilst the Khilafah dominates
the health sector, Islam does allow private facilities to provide health care
for profit. Thus the Khilafah will restore the correct balance to securing the
health of the people.
Hizb
ut-Tahrir states in its “Introduction to the Constitution, Article 164
“The
State provides free health care for all, but it does not prevent the use of
private medical care or the sale of medicine... As for the permissibility of
hiring a doctor, and paying him a fee, this is because seeking treatment is
permitted (Mubah); as mentioned previously the Prophet said: “O
Slaves of Allah seek treatment”, and since treatment is a service that the
one paying for can achieve, therefore, the definition of hiring is applicable
to it, and there has been no prohibition narrated regarding it.”
C2.
Knowledge is free for the people to benefit, including medical research
Islam
defined what can be owned privately and what cannot, the existence of a thing
or a benefit does not mean that it can be owned. Islam explained who can own
what, so for example, an individual cannot own an energy resource, such as
electricity generation plant or oil field. It also defined the limits of
ownership, how an item can be disposed of. Regarding knowledge, it is not a
matter for privatization, allowing great development and excellence in
research.
Hizb
ut-Tahrir states in its “Introduction to the Constitution,” Article 180
“The exploitation of writing books for educational purposes at whatever level
is strictly forbidden. Once a book has been printed and published, nobody has
the right to reserve the publishing and printing rights, including the author.
However, if they were ideas he had, which were not yet printed or published,
the owner has the right to be paid for transferring these ideas to the public
as he paid for teaching. However, if the teacher imparts something verbally or
through writing, the knowledge that the learner took becomes possessed by him,
and so he has the right to impart that knowledge to anyone else whether
verbally or through writing, and he has the right to take a fee for it.”
With
regards to trademarks, these are specific identifying marks to a particular
person or company, like a company name such as Glaxo, or a product produced by
a particular company like Zantac. The name is an identifying feature, so this
cannot be copied, as this would be deception, and the Khilafah would prevent
this.
Note: Please refer to the following
articles of Hizb ut Tahrir's Introduction to the Constitution for the
complete evidences from Quran and Sunnah: 125, 164 and 180. To see relevant
articles of the constitution for the Khilafah state please visit this web link:
http://htmediapak.page.tl/policy-matters.htm
D.
POLICY: The Khilafah is to set world standards for health care and medical
research
D1.
A state dominated health-care system that secures the medical needs of all
citizens, regardless of race, religion, school of thought and gender
D2.
Abolition of the privatization of knowledge through patency laws that will lead
to an explosion in medical research as well as allowing for easily affordable
drugs
Hizb
ut-Tahrir
12 Shawwal 1434 AH
Wilayah
Pakistan 19
August 2013 CE
Or,
See this Link:
