IAEA InTEnds To ExpAnd coopErATIon wITh pAkIsTAn: dG rAfAEl GrossI

ISLAMABAD

Staff report dIRECTORGeneral (DG) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi Wednesday said that the IAEA intended to expand cooperation with Pakistan in different fields, especially in its efforts to provide latest treatment facilities to the cancer patients.

He was speaking during the inauguration ceremony of the latest Cyberknife facility at Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)’s flagship cancer-care hospital in the capital, namely Nuclear Medicine, Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (NORI).

The IAEA DG was accompanied by PAEC Chairman Dr Raja Ali Raza Anwar.

Speaking on the occasion, the IAEA DG hoped that the newly inaugurated Cyberknife facility was multiplying theuropic capacities in Pakistan to treat the cancer patients. He said that the IAEA had launched a global programme called Rays of Hope more than a year ago, which was aimed at increasing the availability of radiotherapy facilities in particular in the developing countries, with a huge deficit in this area.

Rafael said that Rays of Hope project was aimed at bringing radiotherapy facilities for those who did not have it. “Pakistan has top notch facilities in NORI and wonderful professionals to treat cancer patients while many other countries lack such facilities”, he said adding, “This hospital in Pakistan is equipped with the latest technology and has the potential to even extend this facility to the other countries.”

Referring to the example of Africa, he said that 70 percent population in that country lacked access to the radiotherapy facilities.

“Although we have been focusing on COVID-19 pandemic in the past but cancer is one of those diseases which are tremendously affecting largest popula-

political parties, institutions jointly devise action plan for pakistan: fawad chaudhry

LAHORE Staff report

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday has said that state institutions and political parties should give space to each other to take the country ahead and the political parties and the establishment will have to devise an action plan together to bring the country out of political and economic crises. According to the details, while talking to media in Lahore alleged that Maryam Nawaz’s media cell is running a systematic campaign to malign the judiciary and has been threatening the courts continuously but no notice is being taken of her blaming remarks.

He further said that today is the fifth day, but the court order regarding the date of the election has not been complied with by the government. He warned that if the courts and the constitution are not respected then Pakistan will become a “Banana republic”. Fawad blamed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been maintaining its tradition of not following the culture of compliance. He demanded, “Our dignity must be taken into account because PTI holds a Court order for the announcement of the election date and those who do not uphold the sanctity of their oath are not respected anywhere”. Earlier, Fawad Chaudhry said that the “Jail Bharu movement” can be started at 24 hours’ notice, and thousands of PTI workers including leadership are ready to offer their respective arrests in the “Jail Bharu movement”. In this regard, the preparations have been finalized and the announcement may be made within a couple of days.

He added that the Supreme Judiciary is being criticized under a big conspiracy and he demanded the governors of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should immediately resign from their posts. While Asad Umar said that several days have passed since the decision of the Lahore High Court. The court clearly ordered that elections should be held within 90 days but the governor has not yet announced the election. He further said that the whole nation has been watching the imported government running away from the election. They are breaking the constitution for getting an escape from the election. He said t”we had informed the nation about this fear that the government and its sympathizers did not want to conduct the election in any case.

Corporate Corner

tion globally. IAEA is trying to correct such imbalances to improve the healthcare facilities in the world”, he added.

He acknowledged the contribution of the team of the NORI hospital especially a good number of women professionals who are doing immensely excellent job in providing state of the art treatment facilities to the cancer patients and hoped that “We intend to further increase our cooperation in future.”

He also highlighted the IAEA’s assistance in strengthening cancer hospitals in developing countries to provide treatment to patients at par with international standards.

The DG IAEA was also briefed about the role of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission’s 19 cancer hospitals established in all provinces of Pakistan that are shouldering the responsibility of diagnosing and treating over 80 percent of the country’s cancer-affected patients in line with the IAEA’s slogan – ‘Cancer Care for All.’

“I am glad to see latest facilities at the Commission’s NORI hospital. I am pleased to see a lot of women working in NORI in field of nuclear oncology”, he said.

With the inauguration of this facility, NORI became the first public sector cancer hospital of the country to provide cyberknife treatment.

During his stay at NORI hospital, he visited various departments and facilities and appreciated the services of the 19 PAEC cancer hospitals, especially NORI, in diagnosis and treatment of cancer in line with the IAEA’s ‘Rays of Hope’ initiative.

It is to mention here that ‘Rays of Hope’ focuses on prioritizing a limited number of high-impact, cost-effective and sustainable interventions in line with national needs and commitment.

The initiative aims at contributing to the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal-3 (SDG3) i.e. Good Health and Well-Being.

China-Pakistan coop on renewable energy paves way for sustainable development

As a country in transition, Pakistan faces various challenges and needs to quickly find solutions to energy supply and cost issues in order to achieve stable development.

China-Pakistan cooperation on power grid upgrading and renewable energy technology is offering green solutions for sustainable development in Pakistan.

The above views were expressed by Dr. Hassan Duad Butt, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in a recent interview with Gwadar Pro.

During the SDPI roundtable discussion on “Wheeling Reform for Offtake of Renewable Energy” option and challenges held recently, he stated that renewable energy including wind, solar and hydropower provides high-quality and cost-effective impetus for in- dustrial development in Pakistan. However, novel energy initiatives and projects are complex, risky and time-consuming.

He added that, “industrial development is imperative for future employment opportunities and enabling industries for power access, and initiatives such as power wheeling are a must.

To address the headwinds, an integrated and synergistic approach needs to be taken by introducing a development system suiting local cultures and environments.”

Ahad Nazir, Head of Centre for Private Sector engagement, SDPI, highlighted that little attention has been paid to reducing losses in electricity distribution and transmission in Pakistan for a long time.

China has one of the best infrastructure systems in the world and has partnered with Pakistan on the Matiari-Lahore HVDC project.

In the long run, Pakistan should move from being a technology user to a technology developer.

“It is necessary to improve the manufacturing technique in Pakistan. So far, we have installation capacity, and the main focus with respect to wind energy should now be to manufacture equipment locally,” Ahad added, “building towers and warehouses locally is also a good intervention to reduce import and logistics costs.”

Under the revised RE policy, the government of Pakistan aims to derive 60 percent of its energy from renewable sources, including hydro, by 2030, which will wean Pakistan off imported fuel products.

Ahad explained that “we need to adopt energy storage technology and hydrogen fuel and ethanol. These are the things that are less damaging than fossil fuel and still they can ease our journey to renewable energy sources.”