-SAPM Faisal Sultan says Pakistan worried about deteriorating situation in Afghanistan
-IDB urges Pakistan to train Afghan medical practitioners
By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will provide assistance to the Afghanistan government in improving the health sector of the war-torn country, said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan Tuesday.The Afghan officials, he said, will identify areas and set priorities for cooperation in this regard.
“Pakistan will request the Afghanistan authorities to share their priorities with us,” Dr Faisal Sultan said, adding that Islamabad can help Kabul in curbing the coronavirus pandemic and ramp up its vaccinations.
After the withdrawal of US forces, the NGOs running health facilities in the country have stopped working and doctors have also left, crippling the health network in the war-ravaged country.Federal health officials said Pakistan can also help Afghanistan with women and children’s health issues.
At present, officials said hundreds of patients are coming daily to Pakistan for treatment as the COVID-19 situation in Afghanistan is very bad. Only 800,000 Afghans have been vaccinated against the virus so far, they added.
They said that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has also approached Pakistani institutions for the improvement of health services in the country.
The IDB has liaised with the University of Health Sciences Lahore (UHS) to train Afghan medical professionals. The Federal Health Services Academy has also been taken on board for the purpose.
Days earlier, the United Nations drummed up more than $1.2 billion in emergency pledges Monday for helping 11 million Afghans facing an escalating humanitarian crisis in their homeland and millions more elsewhere in the region as the U.N. human rights chief voiced concerns about the Taliban’s first steps in establishing power in the beleaguered and impoverished country.
At the first high-level conference on Afghanistan since the Taliban took power a month ago, Western governments, big traditional donors and others announced pledges that went beyond the $606 million that the United Nations was seeking to cover costs through the end of the year for protecting Afghans from looming humanitarian disaster.
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths announced at the close of the ministerial meeting that more than $1.2 billion in humanitarian and development aid had been pledged.
He said this included the $606 million sought in a “flash appeal” but also a regional response to the Afghan crisis that U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi spoke about after arriving in Kabul on a previously unannounced visit.
He wrote on Twitter that he would assess humanitarian needs and the situation of 3.5 million displaced Afghans, including over 500,000 displaced this year alone.
