ISLAMABAD, Oct 9 (APP)::President Mamnoon Hussain on Monday said that the World Health Organization
(WHO) and allied organizations should formulate policies keeping in view the
ground realities and issues of different regions as well as inform the
institutions which were unaware of the problems for the betterment of ailing
humanity.
Speaking at the inaugural session of 64th Regional Conference of World
Health Organization here, the President said unfortunately, there was still
a huge difference in the situations of the developed and underdeveloped world in
the matters of resources, lifestyles and availability of health-care facilities.
In order to end the differences, he said, there was a need to invest
more in the sector as well as a lot more was to be done to reform certain
other concepts.
He said the people of many third world countries were facing issues like
malnutrition, food shortage and environmental pollution due to lack of resources
which deeply affected the medical diagnosis and procedure.
These factors, he added, were ignored by donor countries and
institutions due to certain other reasons apart from the trends of globalization
which either affected the endeavours related to medicine and health in the third
world or the expected results were not achieved.
President Mamnoon was confident that the WHO’s conference would set the
course for taking important decisions in terms of reviewing available services
as well as provision of more facilities to the people with regard to the
situation of healthcare and treatment in member countries which would open up
new avenues for development in the field of health in the region.
“Our view regarding the provision of healthcare and treatment facilities
to the people is based on positivity and farsightedness. It has been guaranteed
in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that no one will be
allowed to indulge in any action which may pose threat to human life,” he added.
The President said that The Prime Minister’s Health Insurance Programme
was a result of that vision of elders under which the poor and low income
segments would be able to avail the facility of free treatment from the public
and private health institutions.
This programme, in terms of its utility and expansion, he said, was so vast and
efficacious that certain friendly countries had expressed their desire to
benefit from it which was an honour.
Similarly, he said, “we were proud the way Pakistan played a leading role
at the global level for providing prosthetic devices to affected people
suffering from any physical disability.”
The President expressed his pleasure that after the approval of
resolution presented by Pakistan by the Executive Board of WHO next year, the
disabled around the world would have the extraordinary facility of availing the
medical devices in accordance with their need.
Due to wars and bloodshed, he said, the fatal disease of polio
had emerged as a major threat in the region which had also affected Pakistan
along with the neighbouring countries.
The Ministry of Health, the provinces, public and private institutions
worked diligently to safeguard the children from disability as a result of
which by the grace of Allah Almighty the situation in Pakistan had considerably
improved, the President said and added that he was confident that Pakistan would
be able to completely overcome the fatal disease in a very short period.
After overcoming the effects of polio, he added, the future challenge
was that such situation should never emerge in the region again.
In that regard, the President said, Pakistan was playing its part more
than its capacity but at the same time it was also important that in such cases
the international community should adopt a considerate approach instead of
being discriminatory so that the concerted efforts could be made to tackle the
challenges being faced by the mankind.
President Mamnoon hoped that the WHO and the countries of this region would play
their role efficiently as most of the problems were identical.
The spread of polio had also taught the world a lesson that the diseases
could not be limited to geographical boundaries, he said, adding that
germs of various diseases were transmitted from one country to another and
within regions.
In such situations, he said, it was imperative that international
community, especially the regional countries, should cooperate willingly to face
the challenges but sometimes political or non-political matters became
hurdles in its way.
The President said it was necessary that such attitude must be discouraged
and cooperation be promoted so that a comprehensive strategy could be devised to
control the spread of infectious diseases by setting aside all differences.
Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations &
Coordination Ms Saira Afzal Tarar and WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus also spoke on the occasion.
