KARACHI: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said on Wednesday that the government was trying to bridge differences among the provinces to develop a uniform system of education in the country as this sector should be free from politics.

He said this while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) held at the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), Karachi University.

Established at the Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, part of ICCBS, the virology facility is the first of its kind in the country having state-of-the-art instruments to conduct scientific investigations into infectious diseases.

The minister highlighted key features of the government’s educational policy and said it aimed at introducing a uniform system of education that could help bridge the growing gulf between the haves and have-nots in society and bring provinces closer.

A state-of-the-art institute of virology to conduct scientific investigations into infectious diseases opens at KU

“The government has taken major steps towards introducing a uniform syllabus in the country and working on several projects to enhance the quality of education in all faculties,” he said.

The minister also talked about the government’s commitment towards higher education institutions and said it realised the importance of research and development and had allocated Rs59 billion for higher education.

He appreciated the establishment of the NIV and said that this modern institution dedicated to investigate viral diseases would play a key role in the prevention and treatment of viral diseases in the country.

“This is an important achievement given the fact that a number of viral diseases have emerged as major challenges for our existing public health system,” he said.

Need for a virology centre

Experts at the event informed the audience that Pakistan was the fifth most populated country in the world with high mortality rates for both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Aggravating the situation further, they said, were the emerging strains of infectious diseases that were playing havoc with the public health system.

To mitigate the risks associated with life-threatening pathogens, they said, it was imperative to have a solid understanding of the viruses involved in the outbreak of these disorders and devise preventive and remedial measures accordingly.

They referred to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, which had listed around 5,450 different viruses. These caused many major illnesses ranging from common cold, influenza, measles, diarrhoea, hepatitis, rabies, dengue fever, polio, smallpox and AIDS. Even some forms of cancer like cervical cancer and liver cancer were caused by certain viruses called the oncoviruses.

“Treating viral diseases through vaccination is an established mode of prevention but treating these maladies through the development of antiviral drugs is a relatively recent practice.

“The goal of this virology centre will be to develop new vaccines, antiviral therapies and related diagnostic tools. On the basis of its findings, the centre will devise a strategy to cope with viral diseases and build a rapid response system to deal with any outbreak,” said Dr Saba while reading out a message from Nadira Panjwani, the chairperson of the Dr Panjwani Memorial Trust.

ICCBS director Prof Iqbal Choudhary also shed light on the need to have a virology centre in the country and said tackling viral diseases had become a serious challenge in Pakistan, a country with one of the highest prevalence of hepatitis in the world, causing considerable mortality and morbidity.

“Then, there is polio, a disease which has become a matter of national esteem as the entire world, except Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, has successfully eliminated it,” he said.

The new facility, he noted, would contribute towards knowledge, policy and practice and help improve public health system capacity in the country.

Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, the chairman of the prime minister’s task force on science and technology, said significant investments worth billions of rupees were being made in a multitude of projects related to agriculture, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, space sciences, etc.

Talking about ICCBS, he said that this research establishment received international recognition due to its competent faculty, qualified technicians, bright students and public-private partnerships.

KU’s acting Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mehmood Iraqi commended the staff involved in setting up NIV and said it would strengthen national capacity in the field of virology.

Saman Aziz Jamal, in her speech, said that HEJ Foundation had established three world-class science institutions at the ICCBS, apart from providing continuous help to the HEJ scientists, as well as establishing several industry-related laboratories.

The most recent contribution of the foundation is the establishment of the Latif Ebrahim Jamal Nanotechnology Research Institute, to be inaugurated soon, she told the audience.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019