One in four Pakistanis now lives with obesity, doctors told at Karachi forum

More than 1,100 doctors from Sindh and other provinces met at the Metabolic Health Forum at Getz Pharma's Astola facility in Karachi, and the headline figure they were given is a blunt one: one in four Pakistanis, 25 percent of the population, is living with obesity, including women and children.

Endocrinologist Dr Abbas Raza told the forum that obesity causes or contributes to 229 separate diseases.

The conditions, by how common they are

Dr Raza set out the prevalence of specific conditions among people living with obesity:

• Knee osteoarthritis: 52 percent
• High blood pressure: 51 percent
• Sleep apnoea: 40 percent
• Fatty liver disease: 29 percent
• Heart attack: 21 percent
• Diabetes: 21 percent
• Depression: 19 percent

Obesity may shorten life by five to eleven years, the forum was told.

The diabetes context in Pakistan is its own emergency. International Diabetes Federation data cited at the forum puts 34.5 million Pakistani adults with diabetes and prevalence at 31.4 percent, which is among the highest rates recorded anywhere.

Three in four people do not know

The figure doctors kept returning to was that more than 75 percent of people carrying excess weight do not recognise themselves as overweight or obese. That is not vanity. It is the reason people arrive at a clinic with the complication rather than the condition: the knee, the blood pressure reading, the fasting sugar result.

Prof Saeed Mahar told the forum that BMI should not be the only factor in treatment decisions, and that waist size and medical history belong in the assessment.

The counterfeit warning

The practical Pakistan-specific point from the forum is about medicines. Experts called for access to affordable treatments including semaglutide, for prescribers to be properly trained, and for protection against counterfeit products. They cautioned specifically against unsupervised cosmetic use.

If you are considering one of these injections, the only safe route is a prescription from a doctor who has assessed you, and a pharmacy that can show you the supply chain. Pens sold through Instagram, WhatsApp groups and unregistered online sellers are the counterfeit risk the forum was describing, and a fake injectable is not a wasted purchase, it is a medical risk.

This is a summary of what clinicians said at a professional forum, not medical advice. If any of the figures above describe you, the next step is a doctor, not a decision made alone. You can find registered practitioners near you in our Karachi hospitals directory.