SRINAGAR: To finalize the modalities for unity between two Hurriyat Conference factions and finalize program of Martyrs Day on July 13, delegations of both groups held a meeting on Wednesday at Shabir Ahmad Shah’s Sanatnagar residence here. Hurriyat (G) spokesman Ayaz Akbar said that a joint declaration was signed by both the parties after the meeting. “Both the parties agreed to observe July 13 jointly and Geelani Sahib and Mirwaiz Umar Sahib would address the people at Mazar-e-Shuhada Naqshband Sahib at 2:30 pm.” Read the rest of this entry »

UNSG for comprehensive legal framework against torture
To commemorate the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture the UN Information Centre, Islamabad, European Commission and Struggle for Change (SACH) jointly organized a seminar at Serena Hotel, Islamabad. The objective of the seminar was to raise awareness about the elimination of torture from the society and to pursue for the ratification of the United Nations Convention against Torture - CAT “through an active participation and support from allstakeholders in the society. Read the rest of this entry »

ISLAMABAD – The General Assembly, in 1987, decided to observe 26 June as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse. It took that action on 7 December 1987 (resolution 42/112), following a recommendation of the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which, on 26 June, had adopted the Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Outline of Future Activities in Drug Abuse Control. Pakistan has prepared a Master Plan for Drug Abuse Control envisaging a three billion rupee programme for drug reduction activities in the country. This was stated by a senior official of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) at a ceremony held in Islamabad today to launch 2008 World Drug Report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Read the rest of this entry »

ISLAMABAD: May Day was observed throughout the country with determination to work for the welfare of the working class. Seminars and rallies were held on Thursday in different parts of the country to pay tributes to those who laid down their lives in Chicago in 1886 for the rights of the Laborers.

The President and the Prime Minister in their messages on the occasion have urged the workers to play their role in making Pakistan a truly progressive country. President Pervez Musharraf said the government was fully alive to address the problems of workers and would ensure their fundamental rights by pursuing active policies in this regard. He said Islam places great emphasis on the rightful status of a worker in the society.

In his message, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the government will comprehensively review the country’s existing labor laws to bring them in conformity with the International Labor Standards. He said all such laws, regulations and systems would be abolished which support any opportunity of exploitation of the work force.

The Prime Minister said the government was taking all possible measures for the welfare and well being of workers. He said protection of human rights was the bed-rock of Islamic teachings and so was the dignity and respect for labor. The day was also observed in Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir. A rally in connection with Labor Day participated by a large number of workers was taken out in Multan Thursday. Similar rallies were also held in Peshawar and Quetta.

LAHORE: In Lahore Pakistan Workers Confederations took out big rally from Bakhtiar Labour Hall to mark the day. The rally was participated by representatives and workers from Pakistan Workers Federation, All Pakistan Trade Union

Federations, Mutahida Labour Federation, National Trade Union Federation and working women organizations. The participants of the rally welcomed the repeal of PEMRA ordinance and Prime Minister’s Relief Package for Workers.

KABUL: Over half of Afghanistan’s estimated 26.6 million population – and especially pregnant women and children - are vulnerable to malaria, according to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). MoPH says that 14 of the country’s 34 provinces are identified as “high risk” areas where, plasmodium vivax, a malaria parasite, is prevalent. “About 14 million people across the country are at risk of malaria,” Najibullah Safi, programme manager for National Malaria and Leishmaniasis Control (NMLC) at MoPH, said in Kabul.

Landlocked Afghanistan has the second highest number of malaria cases in the Eastern Mediterranean region, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The MoPH and WHO estimate that every year up to 1.5 million cases of malaria occur throughout the country, but most go undiagnosed. Figures verified by the Health Ministry indicated that only 433,412 malaria patients received treatment from March 2006 to March 2007.

“Up to 98 percent of malaria cases were plasmodium vivax – a less life-threatening form of the disease - and only two percent were falciform, the most life threatening form of the disease,” Safi said. While malaria kills over one million people in Africa and Asia, according to WHO [], just 25

Weak diagnosing capacity
Only about 20 percent of the total 443,412 patients who received malaria treatment last year were clinically diagnosed malaria-positive, NMLC reported. “About 80 percent of all malaria patients who were treated last year [over 350,000 patients] were suspected cases and were not confirmed through laboratorial tests,” the manager of NMLC said. While malaria treatment is included in MoPH’s basic health services package, which reaches up to 85 percent of the population through 1,429 health facilities nationwide, there are not enough facilities to diagnose the disease.

“We do not have laboratories in all our health facilities in the country and therefore cannot do proper laboratory tests to confirm every suspected malaria case,” Safi said. “It’s a huge problem,” he added. Health specialists warn that any use of anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine can badly affect the health of a person not suffering from malaria. “If you give anti-malarial drugs to a pregnant woman or a child it can seriously put their health at risk,” warned Abdul Karim Norzai, a paediatrician in Kabul.

Eradication impossible?

Ranked the fifth least developed country in the world, Afghanistan does not have adequate resources, or the technical capacity to wipe out the parasite in the foreseeable future, health officials say. The country is trying to control malaria within five years (2007-2012) with a US$28.3 million fund from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

To control the parasite the MoPH plans to distribute 1.2 million insecticide-treated bed nets to vulnerable communities, particularly in high-risk provinces, in 2008. Immunised children and pregnant women will receive bed nets for free, while others will have to pay a subsidised price, MoPH said.

Malaria is a major public health problem in Afghanistan, which not only threatens the health of millions of people but also affects human productivity and development, and traps vulnerable communities in continuing poverty, experts say. Afghanistan is acutely prone to malaria due to its tropical climate, paddy fields, poor waste management and other environmental factors, MoPH said in a statement.