KARACHI:Former Minister for Science and Technology and Special Scientist for the task force of science and technology, Prof Dr. Atta-Ur- Rahman has said that Pakistan had left India behind in the field of research.
After the establishment of Higher Education, there was a significant boost in research. India was advancing in this field in 2001 but we were getting prepared for the high flight that time. Now we have left India far behind and we stand besides China in progressing towards research technology. The budget allocated to science and research has been raised from 1 million to 20 million. We need to enhance our primary healthcare facilities.
In addition to the use of purified water, it is our responsibility to create awareness so that in absence of an infra structure, people should use pure water on their own. He expressed his views as the Chief Guest at International Conference on Endorsing Health Science Research at Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Auditorium, Ojha Campus. The conference was organized by Dow University of Health Sciences in collaboration with World Health Organization.
The conference was also addressed by Dr Faizan-ul-Haq from World Health Organization, Dr Obaid Ali from Ministry of Health, Dr Sadaf Ahmed from Advance Education Institute and Research.
He said that Pakistan need to spend more on the private research sector as those countries where they spend more on private sector can be seen progressing towards development. China spends 60 percent on its private research sector. A country like Singapore with 5.5 million population is exporting approximately 330 million Dollars due to which the GDP of Singapore is more than the Great Britain whose Singapore used to be a colony in the older times.
He further said that we only stay focused on the exports of natural and some industrial items while we can trade very well by exporting sciences and technological items. We have been at a loss by ignoring science and technology. In Korea, the status of Minister of Science and education is the same as that of Deputy Prime Minister. The Minister of Science and Economic Affairs is also given the same status in Austria.
The position where we stand in the field of Science and technology is known to everyone. We have spent 300 million rupees on 27 kilometer orange train while science and technology has been allocated a budget of 1 million rupees only. He added that China has been sending its students abroad to acquire knowledge and education since 1978 and the number if students increased 21 lac in 2015 from which more than 74 percent students came back to contribute in the development of their own country. He said that we as a nation should correct our direction. With the help of science and technology, even the blind is able to see and deaf can hear. We can also work in the field and progress in agriculture to trade and get benefit.
Vice chancellor DUHS Prof Saeed Quraishy said in his welcome address that the slogan “Health for everyone and everywhere” is itself much attractive and the conference will prove to increase and enhance the knowledge of the participants. Medical practitioners should remain up to date with the advancements in medical sciences in order to coup up with the latest.
He said that by establishing collaboration among medical education and healthcare sector, we can create an ease of the provision of facilities to the local public. He said that the use of antibiotic tablets is discouraged worldwide; however, there is an intensive use of antibiotics in Pakistan.
Chairman of Sindh Healthcare Commission, Prof Tipu Sultan said that we as a nation should work on increasing the annual budget being spent on health. We are currently spending 0.6 percent of our total GDP on health. A city of 2.5 Crore population is providing a healthcare service which includes only 32 thousand beds collective of all private and government hospitals and this number is the same since the past 10 years.