07 October 2004	Thursday	21 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 6: Speakers at a one-day workshop here urged religious scholars to help the government in its campaign against HIV/Aids.

"Being an epidemic and incurable, the HIV/Aids could any time spread in a country like Pakistan and the only way to protect people from the deadly disease is to wage a collective fight against it", said former provincial minister and religious scholar Qari Roohullah Madni while speaking at a workshop organized jointly by the Unicef and the National Aids Control Programme here on Wednesday.

Qari Madni said that religious scholars who had a definite say in social affairs of the country should join hands with other segments of the society to create awareness among the masses.

He told the participants that disease like HIV/Aids were directly associated with human behaviour and any one could easily protect himself/herself by adopting some precautionary measures.

He said that in case of Pakistan where a large section of the population has no access to health delivery system, it was extremely hard to control diseases like HIV/Aids.

Earlier, Naib Nazim Peshawar district Iqbal Khalil in his address informed the participants about HIV/Aids virus and how it damages the human immunity system.

He said that in 75 per cent patients the disease was transferred through sexual contacts and so far 22 million have been died of this deadly disease across the globe.