KARACHI: Pakistani, BD scientists for expanding collaboration
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 24: Scientists from Bangladesh and Pakistan have stressed the need for institutionalizing and expanding the existing limited scientific collaborations between the two countries.
At an open session held to discuss the possibilities of the development of scientific research collaboration between the two countries, senior scientists called for setting up of a Bangla-Pakistan cooperation forum to ensure productive interaction and broadening of perception about scientific works undertaken in the two countries.
The session was held as part of the first two-nation seminar on natural product chemistry at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, on Tuesday.
The adviser to Comstech, Dr Anwar Nasim, chaired the session, which was also attended by scientists from Germany.
Prof M. Mosihuzzaman of the University of Dhaka apprised the audience of the existing arrangement regarding exchange of science scholars between the HEJ Institute and the University of Dhaka and observed that a similar collaboration could be carried out in other fields of sciences. He said efforts should also be made for replication of scientific projects and laboratories of standard by each other.
The existing or new joint programmes, he added, could be continued or introduced on a solid footing only when MOUs were signed by the two countries and financing was available officially.
Another professor from Bangladesh said that efforts should be made to ensure access to online-library information, besides linking up the laboratory and other facilities for scientists of the two countries.
Prof Liaquat Ali, also from Bangladesh, said that in addition to the existing understanding and friendly exchange of scholars there should be a move by the two governments to involve other institutions as well. It was observed that at present the collaborations were mostly in the field of medicines and that too on a person-to-person basis, which should be replaced with short and long-term research programmes.
Dr Iqbal Choudhary, acting-director of the HEJ Institute, said a revolving fund should be established and both the countries should come up with 50 per cent financing of the fund while the remaining could be financed by Comstech.
Dr Anwar Nasim said Comstech was ready to extend support in establishment of a Bangladesh-Pakistan cooperation forum with a financial support from a variety of sources. He said Comstech was committed to support bilateral and multilateral interactions in Muslims countries.
Earlier, at the inaugural session of the three-day seminar, Dr Iqbal Choudhary termed the event a historic occasion and pointed out that holding of such event was necessary for the development of productive scientific research collaboration.
Karachi University vice-chancellor Dr Zafar Saied Saify, who was the chief guest, offered scholarship to the PhD students of Bangladesh to enhance educational exchange between the two countries.
Counsellor at the Bangladesh high commission in Karachi, Mohammad Abu Zafar, appreciated the organizers and hoped that such seminars would provide opportunities to the scientists to interact for high scale research.
The secretary-general of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, Dr A. K. Azad Khan, shared with the audience his experiences in the filed of natural product research and about the establishment of a antidiabetic bioassay model in Peshawar and other places in Pakistan.
Dr Viqaruddin Ahmad presented his views about the importance of natural product sciences and highlighted the significance of sharing many natural resources between the two countries.
One of the organizers maintained that the idea of holding a series of seminars was developed by Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rehman and Prof Mosihuzzaman, the then chairman of the Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, during their meeting in Jan 2000 in Karachi.
During the technical sessions of the seminar, Prof Mosihuzzaman discussed national, regional and international collaboration in natural product research. He said research on natural products required work in different areas of chemistry, biology and pharmacology, and, therefore, necessitated cooperation between scientists working in these fields.
He noted that the phenomenal development in technology had made mutual collaboration between different groups of researchers within and beyond the political boundaries of any developing nation even more important.
Prof Mansoor Ahmad of the KU Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences discussed the new antitussive product from Piper Longum fruits, which he and his fellow scientists had prepared in their laboratory in five years. He maintained that the product was found effective on patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, diabetes, asthma, respiratory infection and malaria.
Prof Wolfang Voelter and Klaus-Peter Zeller also presented their research works pertaining to activities of Thymus Peptides and Hypericin, both chemical compounds.
