Commemorating World TB Day 2022 on March 23, 2022World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is here again to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis as TB’s causative agent by Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch. Having been associated with the program in Pakistan since 1998 or 1999 when we seriously initiated an inter-provincial dialogue on the need for a proper mechanism to adopt […]
Welcome to World Immunisation Week on April 25, 2021This weekend, Pakistan joins the international community in celebrating World Immunisation Week 2021 (April 24-30) under the theme: Vaccines bring us closer. Promoting vaccinations to protect people of all ages against disease is as urgent as ever since it is imperative that routine jabs doses are not missed amidst the scramble for COVID-19 shots. Pakistan […]
A dialogue on World Health Day 2021 on April 11, 2021We live in an unfair world. Nothing seems fair or equitable right from the time we are born. The great English writer Charles Dickens summed up this sentiment well in one of his novels. “In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and […]
Pakistan television’s first lady Kanwal Naseer An Obituary on March 31, 2021She was a princess while her mother was the uncrowned queen of broadcasting in Pakistan. The mother Mohini Das had joined All India Radio in 1938 at the age of 16 years as a drama artist and later compere its children’s program from Lahore with the pseudonym “Apa Shameem”. She would perform the latter role […]
Ending tuberculosis in Pakistan as the clock ticks away on March 24, 2021The silent pandemic of Tuberculosis continues its ravages against humankind, with 10 million persons contracted with the disease and killed an estimated 1.4 million persons in 2019, translating to around 4,000 deaths in each day. The situation in Pakistan, that stands fifth on the list of worst affected countries globally, is equally grim where around […]
The absolute imperative of identifying and notifying cases of tuberculosis on February 14, 2021As we approach Valentine’s Day let us resolve to be compassionate and kind, spread solidarity and love in our work, ensure that nobody is stigmatized regardless of any consideration and not ostracize patients if they suffer from a communicable diseases like Tuberculosis. Above all let us resolve to speak up, stand up and step up […]
WORLD AIDS DAY 2020 on November 30, 2020As we observe the World AIDS Day this year in Pakistan, under the shadow of the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and another silent pandemic of Tuberculosis, let us do so with a resolve to ensure continuity of priority health services, come hail, rain or sunshine. While Pakistan acquitted itself admirably in the first […]
Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan (part II) on June 14, 2020It is also said that Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan, who was facing the biggest challenge of her lifetime, was confronted with evidence of those involved in the plot to eliminate her husband and she chose discretion. She may have learnt some lessons from Ms Fatima Jinnah’s case who defied the powers that be and […]
Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan (Part-I) on June 13, 2020First prime minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan travelled from the capital Karachi to Rawalpindi to address a public meeting. The late afternoon of October 16, 1951 found him in the (British East India) Company Bagh of Rawalpindi poised to address a crowd of around 100,000 people. As he rose to speak, an Afghan national […]
Honoring the nurses and midwives of Pakistan on World Health Day 2020 on April 2, 2020The world’s foremost nurse Florence Nightingale knew it all. Ordained by her inner voice to serve humanity, she was hard on herself as she went about creating what the modern world now calls the nursing profession. Transformational leadership has never been easy She is on record as having said, “There is no part of my […]