PESHAWAR, May 23: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is helping National Aids Control Programme to develop HIV/Aids policy to give legal protection to the care, treatment and social support to the HIV/Aids patients in the country, an official said.

He said that the National Aids Control Programme (NACP) was formulating some strategies and plans for policy development.

NACP was developing a legislative framework which would give a legal cover to HIV/Aids control programme activities, he said, adding that it was also developing a policy framework for providing treatment, social care and support to HIV positive people.

“During the development of current biennium plan (2006-07), for HIV/Aids control the NACP has sought WHO’s assistance in developing a comprehensive HIV/Aids policy for Pakistan,” said Dr Quaid Saeed, WHO’s National Professional Officer for HIV/Aids.

Talking to Dawn, he said that to accomplish the task, the global health agency hired the services of an international consultant. To facilitate the consultant, a Pakistani consultant was also hired, he added.

The UN health agency imparted training to officials from NACP on policy development process in Mumbai, India, from March 20 to 24, Dr Saeed said, adding that it was followed by consultations with stakeholders and preparation for development of HIV/Aids policy in Pakistan.

In the meantime a draft of legislative framework for HIV/Aids in Pakistan was also prepared, he said.

Another important activity was preparation of strategic framework for care and support for people living with HIV/Aids, he said, adding that the first draft of the framework was ready and the process of consultations had been completed.

Other important activities that would help a great deal in the policy development process were the mid-term review being carried out in NACP and the revision of National Strategic Framework, he said.

All the activities would go in tandem with the policy development process and would generate valuable information for the development of the policy itself, the WHO official said.

According to him, the process of policy development had been divided into three phases. The first would begin by the end of the current month with consultations with key stakeholders in the control of HIV/Aids during which consultants and officials of NACP and WHO would collect important information, he informed.

“This would be followed by development of first draft of the policy document. NACP would then go for consultations with officials from all provinces including Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana) and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) to have in-depth discussions with key stakeholders on the first draft policy,” he said.

Dr Saeed said that it would be the second phase of the process that would hopefully end by the second week of July and would culminate in development of a second draft document of HIV/Aids policy. The third and the last leg of the process would be the presentation of the second draft in a national consultative workshop for scrutiny that would then result in development of the final draft of the HIV/Aids policy for Pakistan in the last week of July, he added.