Pakistan elected IAEA BoG member for 21st time

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was elected Member of the Board of Governors (BoG) of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the 21st time since becoming a member of the agency.

The honour reflects Pakistan and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission’s active participation in the visionary initiatives of IAEA in use of atoms for peace and development, said a news release received here on Thursday.

The 68th General Conference (GC) has brought many laurels and honours for the South Asian country that are very significant in nature.

Earlier, Nuclear Medicine, Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (NORI), a flagship hospital of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in Islamabad, earned accolades at international level when its contribution in cancer diagnosis, treatment and sharing of expertise with regional member states was acknowledged by none other than Director General (DG) of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi himself during the two sideline events of the ongoing 68th General Conference.

The first sideline event, organised by the IAEA Secretariat, was titled “Realizing Hope for All: Rays of Hope Anchor Centres – One Year On”. On this occasion, Rafael Mariano Grossi, while recalling his visit to the hospital during his two-day official tour of Pakistan from February 15-16 last year, poured NORI hospital with appreciation for being a leader in facilities, expertise as well as willingness to share with less-equipped centres of cancer care in the region. He further said that he was much impressed with state-of-the-art facilities at NORI hospital Islamabad and, owing to the immense potential of NORI, the hospital was among the first five prestigious anchor centres on health in the world designated by IAEA under Rays of Hope initiative.

“Now that one year has passed, NORI has shown impressive and exemplary progress among the Anchor Centres which is commendable. Chairman PAEC, Director NORI, dedicated doctors and the whole staff deserves appreciation for showing wonderful progress,” Rafael Mariano Grossi concluded.

The second side event of the GC was a Member State Event organised by Pakistan and was titled, “Pakistan – IAEA: Collaboration of Hope”. The event highlighted Atomic Energy Cancer Hospital (AECH) – NORI, one of the nineteen cancer hospitals of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and a major resource hospital for capacity building of health professionals involved in diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Addressing on this occasion, Chairman PAEC Dr Raja Ali Raza Anwar said, “Pakistan enjoys a longstanding and mutually beneficial partnership with the IAEA. Cancer is one of the major contributors to Non-Communicable Diseases causing the death of 0.18 million people annually in Pakistan. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission gives high priority to the application of nuclear technology in health sector. It has established 19 cancer hospitals spreading all over the country with a dedicated team of 380 highly trained nuclear physicians, radiotherapists, oncologists and medical physicists. PAEC cancer hospitals cater over 40,000 new cancer cases per annum with 1.0 million follow-up cases taking around 80pc of the country’s cancer burden. It was a matter of immense pleasure for Pakistan to have Rafael Mariano Grossi to inaugurate a state of the art Cyber Knife facility at NORI, Islamabad last year.”

The chairman PAEC further said the commission is also working in close association with the IAEA and WHO in the field of cancer care. Pakistan is ready to support regional countries for cancer treatment access through NORI Anchor Centre under the flagship initiative of DG IAEA ‘Rays of Hope’.