October 22, 2003	Wednesday	Sha’aban 25, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) will establish five more nuclear medical institutes both in developed and remote parts of the country to provide cancer treatment facility to the people, announced PAEC Chairman Dr Parvez Butt here on Tuesday.

He was speaking at the opening of an “International Conference on Current Trends in Radiopharmaceuticals” organized jointly by IAEA/PAEC at a local hotel.

“The cancer related diseases are in the ascendant and a big effort is needed to combat this menace. And to meet this challenge, five more nuclear medical centres are coming up soon with many more to be added,” the chairman observed. The new cancer institutes would be set up in Bannu, Nawabshah, Gilgit, Swat and Gujranwala.

Multidisciplinary research efforts aimed at indigenization has resulted in solid contribution to national defence, economic development and healthcare services and our focus remains all round advancement in these areas, he said.

He said utilization of nuclear technology remained the vital force behind generating electric power, evolution of high yield soil suitable crop varieties, diagnostic and treatment of cancer- related diseases and development of local industry through nuclear techniques and applications.

For running thirteen nuclear medical institutes for public benefit, the major input by cost were the diagnostic and treatment kits/medicines, which if imported were expensive and rendered the treatment of this disease beyond the reach of common man, he explained.

The Commission was already manufacturing major requirements of these kits and aimed at undertaking the preparation of more such medicines to bring down the cost, the chairman said.

He also cited the evolution of new cotton variety NIAB-111 by the PAEC, which had high-yield and pest-resistant features and had shown promising success on the farms of progressive farmers. The same would be released very soon for extensive sowing, he said and added “Our existing crop verities are in high demand with the farmers, which have resulted in fetching Rs6 billion additional income to them.”

He said excessive use of pesticide had adverse affects on environment, therefore, the PAEC was popularizing an effective technology called bio-technological approach whereby pests were eliminated by employing friendly pests raised for this purpose.

He said the Commission aimed at mass multiplication of the seeds of this variety for the use of farmers, and for this purpose it had set up a seed company.