PMA warns 600,000 ‘fake doctors’ operating nationwide, fueling hepatitis and AIDS through reused syringes
This photograph taken on January 8, 2026 shows an unlicensed clinic on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Sindh. PHOTO: AFP
Rusty nails hold used IV tubes to the wall of a clinic run by one of hundreds of thousands of unqualified doctors operating across Pakistan.
Dozens of patients visit the small roadside store in Sindh every day, where a few chairs are arranged around wooden tables used to lie down patients.
“These patients have confidence in me. They believe I can treat them well,” said Abdul Waheed, who opened the facility a few months ago outside the city of Hyderabad.
By day, the 48-year-old works in a private hospital in Hyderabad. In the evening, he comes to the village of Tando Saeed Khan to see patients at his clinic, charging Rs 300 ($1) per consultation.
“I have spent so much time in this field. I have worked with several doctors. Thank God, I have the confidence to diagnose a patient and treat the disease,” Waheed told AFP.
There is no sign, no registration number and he has no legal authorization to practice medicine.
Waheed, who has a degree in homeopathy and trained as a nurse for four years, speaks with confidence.
After examining two young children, he insisted that patients come to him willingly and have confidence in his abilities.
“No one has questioned me yet. If anyone comes, I will see what to do,” he said, reflecting the ease with which unqualified people practice medicine in Pakistan. These unlicensed clinics are often the first, and sometimes only, place of care for poor communities.
Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, said there are “more than 600,000 fake doctors” operating across Pakistan.
This nationwide figure was confirmed by the Sindh Health Care Commission (SHCC), based on estimates from the Medical and Dental Council of Pakistan.
Calling the practice a public health epidemic, Shoro said these practitioners work with doctors, learn a few things there, and then open their own clinics.
“Unqualified doctors do not know the side effects or the exact dosage of medications. If a disease is not properly diagnosed, it can become dangerous,” Shoro said.
“The instruments they use are not sterilized. They just wash them with water and continue to use them. They reuse the syringes, which increases the spread of hepatitis and AIDS.”
When AFP journalists visited, Tando Saeed Khan, another unqualified doctor, immediately closed his clinic and disappeared.
Outside Waheed’s shop, villager Ali Ahmed said there are several such clinics in the area.
“None of them have qualified doctors. People are not educated and cannot recognize qualified doctors,” the 31-year-old told AFP.
Medical experts say the uncontrolled practice is having a direct impact on Pakistan’s already strained healthcare system, with tertiary care hospitals overwhelmed by patients whose conditions worsen after inappropriate treatment.
Khalid Bukhari, director of Karachi Civil Hospital, said the facility regularly receives such cases from across the country.
“They misdiagnose and mistreat patients. Our hospital is overloaded. Most of the cases we receive are those they ruined,” said Bukhari, whose public hospital is one of the largest in the country.
“These people are playing with the lives of poor citizens. If people see proper doctors and receive accurate treatment, they will not need to come to us.”
Regulators acknowledge their inability to control the problem.
“We have limited resources. This practice cannot be eliminated easily. If we close 25 outlets, 25 new ones will open the very next day,” said Ahson Qavi Siddiqi, chairman of the Sindh HealthCare Commission (SHCC).
The commission recently sealed a bungalow in Karachi that was functioning as a hospital – with intensive care units for children and adults – because it was not registered.
“The law against this is weak. We file complaints, but the accused are released on bail the next day because it is a bailable offence,” Siddiqi told AFP.
The official also described the serious security threats facing inspection teams.
“These people have influence in their region. In many cases, our teams are taken hostage. We are being shot at. I do not have the strength to act forcefully,” said the SHCC official.
Shoro said the practice also financially destroys families who end up with big hospital bills if something goes wrong.
