August 06, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 3, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The National Core Group in Life Sciences (NCGLS) of the Higher Education Commission in collaboration with OIC Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation (COMSTECH) has launched Biological Safety Association (PBSA) here Tuesday.

The association will provide a comprehensive knowledge related to bio-safety issues in Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, convener of the association Dr Anwar Nasim gave a brief of the initiatives taken by the NCGLS, since its joining the International Council for Life Sciences (ICLS), regarding the issues of biosafety and biosecurity. His speech was followed by a presentation by Dr Erum Khan, Assistant Professor, Aga Khan University, Karachi on ‘National Biosafety our Concern’.

The participants were informed that the main objectives of PBSA was establishment of a core group of people trained in the biological safety, utilising the expertise to address national biosafety issues and formulate framework for promotion of best practices, standards and codes of conduct in life sciences.

The association will act as an advocating body for biological risks, develop national biosafety guidelines, capacity building in terms of developing expertise in legal, scientific and technical areas, development of national databases for issues related to biosafety, web management for information dissemination, conduct research to propagate biosafety, introducing biosafety as part of national curriculum at graduate, diploma and postgraduate levels, develop networking with various national and international institutes and agencies including ICLS, HEC, Comstech, IBEP and CRDF, she added.

Thirty participants attended the meeting from various organisations including AFIP, Global Marketing Services, Strategic Plans Division (SPD), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DESTO, Ministry of Environment, Shifa International Hospital, Nust, NARC, PAEC, Quaid-i-Azam University, Aga Khan University, University of Karachi, Indus Hospital, NIH, and Comstech attended the meeting.