SIALKOT - Surgical Instruments produced in Pakistan are used around the globe, saving lives of a number of people every day by serving the humanity. Pakistans Surgical Instruments export to the world is $250 million per annum and to the UK in 2010 it was $23.19 million which is 9.28 percent of its total exports. Whereas the UKs total import of this sector is $3.368 billion with Pakistans shares 0.69 percent only. More than 90 percent of our exports are to rest of World where our quality is always acknowledged said Senior Vice Chairman Surgical Instrument Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (SIMAP) Jehangir Bajwa in a media release. Over 95 percent of Surgical Instruments producers in Pakistan have international certification and have adopted good manufacturing practices while their manufacturing arrangements were supervised by highly skilled craftsmen and professionals and many internationally reputed brands have joint ventures in Pakistan he said. The Vice Chairman further stated that SIMAP is playing a vital role in capacity building and modernization of Surgical Industry in Pakistan with the help of Engineering Development Board (EDB) and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR). SIMAP has upgraded Manufacturing Standards of industry and was also focusing to bring new technologies he said. He regretted that the BBC Panorama has negative reporting on Surgical Industry of Pakistan and have not highlighted factuality adding that BBC Panorama stated that Barts and the London NHS trust reject 20 percent of tools as unsafe for use. It shows that they have strong checking procedures though its questionable either these tools are actually imported from Pakistan or from any other origin and also there is never any feedback on substandard tools from NHS he disclosed. It doesnt make any sense to build a story with reference to a phone call. If there was any flaw in quality evaluation of UK based departments, one can never blame Pakistan Surgical industry he added. He said Floor grade instruments which are also used as tools in different industries like electronics cant be compared with reusable instruments produced for different surgeries. If some UK importer registered with NHS imports floor grade instruments which are definitely of lower quality and cheaper as compared to high quality tools from Pakistan and supply it to NHS, then NHS has to review its procurement and evaluation system he added. The Vice Chairman said it is out of question that used instruments are supplied from Pakistan and we strongly rejected Tom Brophys statement that he received tools which have blood traces on them. Instruments exported from Pakistan are none sterilized as this job is mostly done in importing country, so how is it possible he disclosed. It is acknowledged by BBC Panorama that larger companies operate state of the art facilities and has rigorous quality control procedure in place. In fact only larger companies can handle supplies of NHS as it is not possible for smaller companies which have access only to the markets of undeveloped countries. Mostly smaller units are working as vendors of larger companies as there are 38-45 different processes involved in manufacturing an instrument. All exporting companies have strict quality control system. MHRA is a well known and well reputed agency in UK and they stated that they have no evidence that non complaint instruments are supplied which also support our logic. SIMAP is representative body of surgical industry in Pakistan and has never received any complaint from UK about sub-standard of instruments. BBC panorama should have positive reporting on Pakistan Surgical industry which is serving humanity over more than 100 years.