LAHORE, April 12: A 30-member team from the Armed Forces Postgraduate Medical Institute, Rawalpindi, visited the University of Health Sciences on Wednesday.

The delegation was led by AFPGMI commandant Maj-Gen Shafique Ahmed Kiani.

Speaking to the delegation, UHS vice-chancellor Prof Malik Husain Mubbashar warned that the blind application of any western model in science, and especially in healthcare services, would be the most unscientific thing to do.

Prof Mubbashar said it was unfortunate that the research on the diseases common in this part of the world, such as tuberculosis, was being carried out in the laboratories of Germany and the USA. “We are importing vaccines from abroad which should rather be produced indigenously because these are in-fact attenuated forms of the viruses which inflict diseases on local population,” he said.

The VC asserted that basic research was quite inexpensive and could be done in common laboratories, saying the only problem was to develop a culture of research. The UHS’ slogan was to produce more and more PhDs in basic medical sciences, he added.