KARACHI, Jan 31: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad has said that the provincial government allocated over Rs500 million to control Aids.
At a dinner he hosted in the honour of local and foreign participants of the provincial parliamentary seminar on HIV/Aids policy at Governor’s House on Monday night, Ishratul Ibad said that the government had also taken measures for strengthening blood transfusion services for improved blood safety.
The governor said that he was pleased to learn that the Parliamentarians for Global Action, in collaboration with the Provincial Assembly of Sindh, the National Assembly and the Senate of Pakistan, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Aga Khan University and the United Nations joint programme on HIV-Aids (UN-Aids), has organized the seminar in Karachi.
He said that it was indeed a matter of importance that a distinguished gathering of overseas visitors and parliamentarians from all over the country were attending the two-day seminar on an extremely significant subject.
“As we all know, HIV/Aids is not only a deadly disease but a silent killer. This necessitates the imperative need for awareness in order to familiarize the people with the HIV reality,” he observed adding that the misperceptions about HIV and Aids should be removed while raising awareness on precautions and syndromes on priority basis.
He said there was dire need for disseminating correct, effective and acceptable information in order to educate the masses for the adoption of appropriate behavioural changes.
Scholars, he said, could contribute towards preventing this disease by giving sermons. Likewise, by collecting data and giving services to the people of the country, the NGOs could also prevent Aids from becoming an epidemic, he said.
Ishratul Ibad said that it was not just a disease, but phenomena that challenged our nation’s health and economic well-being.
The role of legislators and public representatives, he said, was to guide the nation by giving policy direction. No social programme could succeed without the participation of the community at grassroots level. In this context, the governor said that the role of the parliamentarians was pivotal as you were the law-makers and as such fully aware of the need for new laws in order to address all aspects of problems of HIV and Aids both in relation to the formulation and its implementation.
“Let us pledge ourselves towards the noble cause of defeating Aids,” he added.
Earlier, Sindh Assembly Speaker Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah in his address said that holding of the two-day HIV/Aids conference would help in formulating legislation. He said that the ratio of HIV/Aids patients in Pakistan was very low as compared to other countries.
Deputy Speaker of New Zealand Ross Robertson said: “AIDS has become a global problem and for its prevention we have gathered today.”
Among others, Balochistan Assembly Speaker Jamal Shah Kakar, Nimal Siripala De’Sliva from Sir Lanka, Kaynell Andreychuk from Canada, Chitra Lekha Yadar from Nepal, Balochistan Health Minister Hafiz Hamidullah, Karachi Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, and diplomats also attended the function.—APP
