Schoolchildren’s screening to be started in province

LAHORE : Caretaker Provincial Health Minister Prof Dr Javed Akram participated as a special guest in the opening session of the two-day conference 2023 on ‘Frontiers in Applied Biological Sciences’ at a private university.

On this occasion, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Major General (Retd) Khalil Dar, Dean Basic Sciences Colonel (Retd) Dr Muhammad Amjad Khan, Guest of Honour Prof Dr Shahida Hasnain, Guest Speaker Prof Dr Tahir Yaqub, Prof Imran Afzal and students also participated.

Caretaker Minister Prof Dr Javed Akram said that the impact of any research on the society is the most important. The main purpose of a university is to conduct research. Lahore Garrison University is giving special attention to the research department, he sad adding biological sciences is a huge field; we should collaborate with academia and industry. The minister said that the Punjab government was going to start screening programme in schools of Punjab. Thalassemia screening of Class 10 students will be made mandatory across the province. In Pakistan, the parents of Thalassemia children go through a lot of pain.

The minister said that Pakistan would become the third largest country in the world in terms of population in the next 20 years. Pakistan unfortunately does not have a single biotechnology plant. China has more than 3,000 biotechnology plants. According to the vision of the caretaker chief minister, the Punjab government is trying to provide better health facilities to the people. We want to build biotechnology parks in Pakistan and lab skills should also improve in the country. Special attention is being paid to quality research in the medical schools of Punjab. There should be progress in the field of gene editing. Lahore Garrison University will be affiliated with our teaching institutions to improve the teaching department. The minister congratulated the university administration for organising the conference.