Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday that Pakistan needed trade, technology and modern knowledge and skills instead of foreign aid. "The Punjab government took the historic decision of renouncing the foreign aid 10-month ago and is still completing its development projects expeditiously. Pakistan is rich in mineral resources and through their development can achieve a dignified status in the comity of nations."
He said this while addressing the 46th joint convocation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) and College of Physicians and Surgeons Bangladesh (CPSB) and talking to media-men at a local hotel on Friday. Shahbaz said, "Every Pakistani is perturbed over energy shortage; industrial sector has been badly affected while poverty and unemployment problems have increased." He added that power crisis, besides causing irreparable damage to national economy, was also leaving a negative impact on the performance of hospitals and educational institutions and there was a need for taking practical measures on emergent basis to cope with this problem.
About Pak-India relations, Shahbaz said Pakistan and India should resolve all bilateral issues including water and Kashmir and utilise their resources for the uplift and betterment of the masses, adding if India and Pakistan learnt to rely on their own resources they would soon join the ranks of those countries which gave rather than beg from others.
The CM said that approval of unanimous resolution by the parliament on Nato supply and foreign policy was welcome move; however, there was a need for implementation of the resolution in letter and spirit. He said bilateral relations with America and other developed countries should be established in such a manner that national interests were upheld, adding that while AIDS weakened human body, aid destroyed a society.
Expressing his views on the approval of unanimous resolution in the joint session of the parliament, Shahbaz said that members of the parliament had been elected by the masses and the passage of the unanimous resolution by the parliament was a welcome step. However, he said, there was a need for ensuring implementation of the resolution in letter and spirit.
Answering a question about the strike of young doctors, he said there was no justification for strike on the basis of departmental postings and transfers. The CM further said that democracy was aimed at public service but the rulers had pushed the nation into despondency and darkness in the name of democracy.
Earlier, addressing the convocation, Shahbaz praised doctors, paramedical staff and nurses for bravely countering the worst outbreak of dengue in the human history last year, and said had government and doctors not waged a joint struggle they was a threat of the loss of 25,000 human lives.
He said Cuba which was a comparatively small and poor country had the best healthcare system in the world while modern health facilities were also available to the people of Iran but despite having the best brains and human resource no attention was paid to the development of health sector in Pakistan during the last 64 years.
He said medical experts should evolve comprehensive recommendations for the uplift of healthcare system so that proper treatment facilities could be available to the masses. He said that College of Physicians and Surgeons was playing an important role in the promotion of quality medical education in the country.
He said Punjab government would extend all out co-operation to the College of Physicians and Surgeons due to its vital role in higher education in health sector so that specialists in various sectors of medicine could become available to the country. President College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan Zafarullah Chaudhry in his welcome address highlighted the performance of the institution.
He said that College of Physicians and Surgeons was providing modern educational facilities to doctors in various sectors of medicine, adding 422 fellows were awarded degrees and 53 fellows were given membership in the convocation. Professor Rakhshanda and Dr Abrar Ashraf Ali were given honours while gold medals were given to the position-holders on the occasion.
Comments
Comments are closed.