RAWALPINDI, July 15: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has called for cooperation between South Asian countries to ensure availability of inexpensive medicines for their people. Speaking to a delegation of health ministers from member states of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), President Musharraf said regional cooperation in this field would help improve healthcare and ultimately contribute to overcoming poverty.

He said Saarc countries could greatly benefit from regional cooperation in health sector as they faced common challenges like provision of safe drinking water to the population living below poverty line and eradication of common diseases like hepatitis, malaria and tuberculosis.

Pakistan, he informed the delegation, was concentrating on providing basic education and health facilities at grass-roots level besides clean drinking water to the entire nation by 2007.

Like other developing nations, he said, Saarc members need to focus on improving quality of preventive healthcare.

The president said an improved system of primary healthcare could also help reduce problems of poor segments.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan and Health Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood were also present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, speaking at the technical session of the second conference of Saarc health ministers on Friday, Health Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood stressed the need for evolving consensus to combat menace of HIV/Aids, and control malaria, hepatitis, TB, and communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Mr Mehmood urged the member states to formulate and adopt national plan for promotion of traditional medicines.

Traditional medicines are an asset to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other Saarc countries which should be utilized by increasing their database production and use.

He also urged for detail discussion on WTO and Trade-Related Intellectual Property Right (TRIP) regarding the production of traditional medicine.

He expressed his confidence that the conference would draw strategies to check infant mortality and save women during childbirth.

Steps would also be suggested in the conference about children survival during the early years of life, he said.

Later, the officials of seven countries took up the agenda of the meeting and discussed in detail preparation of Islamabad declaration which would be adopted at the second Saarc health ministers conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday.

During the technical session, the participants reviewed the progress on implementation of the report of the first conference of Saarc health ministers held in New Delhi.

The meeting also discussed in detail the health policy and system research to improve performance of the national health system in Saarc countries.—APP