Pakistan’s Legal Response to Global Health Crises: Evaluating Compliance with WHO Regulations

Abstract

International health emergencies like pandemics represent a big legal, ethical, and governance problem to national governments. Global health security is achieved through legally binding frameworks such as the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) that are set up by the World Health Organization. As a signatory to these regulations, Pakistan is bound to establish legal mechanisms on a national level to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the strong and weak aspects of the Pakistani legal and institutional reaction to international health crises. This study explores the legal aspects of health emergencies in Pakistan and their use in relation to the rule of law. It examines law, institutional policies and interventions taken in big health emergencies, especially the COVID-19. The research concludes that although Pakistan introduced major reforms like establishing coordinated response channels, smart lockdown measures, and enhanced infection preventive measures, there are still loopholes in areas like surveillance capacity, legal alignment between federal and provincial governments, and resource distribution. The study concludes that, Pakistan has is complying partially with the WHO policies but needs legal restructuring, institutional empowerment and more cooperation with other countries to ensure that it fully absorbs the international health governance systems.