Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday highlighted “inequities in the global healthcare” and termed them as the “foremost problem”.

PM Shehbaz passed these remarks while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Redefining Global Health Agenda’ during the special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh.

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The prime minister said he was struck by a “nasty” cancer back in 2003 and he had to spend thousands of dollars from his pocket to undergo surgery in New York.

“And I wondered how many people in my country can afford this kind of expensive treatment,” the premier said, adding that when he later became the chief minister of Punjab he built hospitals specialising in treatment for kidney and liver diseases as well as cancer.

He emphasised that “first and foremost problem is global inequities” in healthcare, as Covid-19 exposed “imbalances and gaps hugely”.

“Imagine the global north and the global south; distribution of vaccines and so on and so forth,” he said.

PM Shehbaz reached Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday to attend the two-day WEF’s Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy starting from April 28, 2024.

The invitation was extended by Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, the foreign office said earlier.

As per details, PM Shehbaz is accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

“Climate change completely changed the landscape”

Speaking during the panel discussion on Sunday, the prime minister said climate change had completely changed the landscape.

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“Pakistan does not contribute even a fraction of emissions yet we are on the red list for climate change and in 2022.

“Pakistan experienced the worst climate change floods in Pakistan in 2022. Everything was devastated from hospitals to schools to land and agriculture and we had to invest hundreds of billions of rupees to rehabilitate people,” Shehbaz said.