BENTOTA (Sri Lanka), March 13: Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have each sent several government officials to the five-day workshop on HIV and AIDS which is being held at a beach resort here.

All the participants, in one way or the other, are involved in AIDS-control programmes in their own countries.

But Pakistan has sent only one official, who, either incidentally or by design, has very little to do with the AIDS-control programmes.

The Bangladeshi delegation includes several senior officials who work for their national AIDS-control initiative.

The Nepalese and Sri Lankans too are equally suitable for conference.

The Pakistani contingent is the only exception, which largely comprises journalists and representatives of various NGOs.

The Bangladeshi delegates are actively involved in all the proceedings of the workshop, as are the Nepalese.

The Pakistanis on the other hand are vocal but ill-equipped even to undertake follow-up exercises expected of every delegation.

According to an estimate 70,000 Pakistanis are HIV or AIDS patients; just under 2,000 have been identified and documented so far.