Afghan health minister wants Pakistan’s help

By Khurrum Anis

KARACHI: Afghanistan’s Minister for Public Health Sohaila Siddiq, who is on a visit to Pakistan to discuss the rehabilitation of the Afghan health sector, visited the College of Physicians and Surgeons, here on Wednesday.

The Afghan general surgeon holds the rank of an army general.

In her speech, she said that her delegation had come to talk to the Pakistani authorities regarding the rehabilitation of the health sector in Afghanistan.

She said: “We came to Pakistan with a three-point agenda and met your Health Minister, Mr Nasir Khan, with whom we reached an understanding.”

Dr Siddiq was accompanied by Abdullah Fahim, Afghanistan’s director of international affairs, who told Daily Times that his delegation and the Pakistani government had reached an agreement on all the three points.

He said the three points were cross-border cooperation, training of medical staff and checking the smuggling of Pakistani medicines into Afghanistan, he added.

“Cross-border cooperation pertains to two things: the Polio campaign and the control of contagious diseases like tuberculosis. Training the medical staff is most important as we need more and more people to help us in the health field. We want that specialists and practitioners should come to Afghanistan and train our men and women.”

On the illegal trade of medicines in Afghanistan, Mr Fahim said: “During the Talibal era drugs (medicines) used to come into our country through proper trade routes, which actually encouraged people to use Pakistani medicines. Unfortunately after the fall of the Taliban, the illegal drug trade increased, and this spread fear among our people regarding the authenticity of the medicine.”

The director that the two governments were going to set up a joint committee for cross-border cooperation.

Mr Fahim said the Al-Shifa Hospital in Peshawar had promised to assist the Nangahar Hospital with the setting up of an Allergy Centre and an Eye Department. The National Institute of Health has also promised to give assistance in the field of toxicology.

On basic health needs in Afghanistan, Mr Fahim said: “We did a survey recently and found that because of the 23-year devastation, 75 percent of the health units had been totally destroyed. You cannot imagine the amount of burden we have on our shoulders. We are trying to cover the whole country. There are places which are almost impossible to reach. In one remote region there was an outbreak of pertosis—whooping cough—and we had to go through Tajikistan just to reach the area.”

On the treatment of Taliban PoWs in terms of health, Mr Fahim remarked: “The jails belong to the military. We are a health ministry and the most we can do is advise the superintendents on how to keep their prisoners in good condition. We visited the Mazar-e-Sharif prison and suggested various ways to keep the prisoners in good health. We are also collaborating with the army and police in this regard.”

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