Pakistan starts local production of anti-Covid vaccine, NA told.

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Nausheen Hamid on Friday informed the National Assembly that Pakistan has started local production of anti-Covid vaccine.

Responding to various questions during the question hour, Nausheen said the first batch of CanSino vaccine was currently being manufactured at the National Institute of Health (NIH), which would be available for administration to the people by the end of current month. She said out of total stock of imported vaccine doses, 91 percent were purchased by the government while the remaining 9 percent were gifted by China.

She said Pakistan is amongst top consumers of antibiotics. Resultantly, she said, there is an increasing resistance to even broad-spectrum antibiotics. She said the problem could not be fully controlled due to various reasons, including self-medication by more than 51 percent of population, a large number of quacks who prescribe antibiotics, availability of over-the-counter antibiotics and inappropriate prosperity of antibiotics. She said that the incumbent government has included antimicrobial resistance (AMR) containment as priority agenda for health security which has also been included in the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS).

In his reply to a supplementary question, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Muhammad Khan said Pakistan Railway has witnessed significant growth during the tenure of the current government. "The opening of Karachi circular railway is one example of such development," he claimed.

Soon after the minister's remarks, opposition benches started thumping the desks with the slogan 'waoo' (wonderful). Perhaps, the opposition was mocking the minister's claims he had made regarding growth of railways as the railways minister on the other hand had informed the house in writing that the department was facing financial deficit of millions of rupees.

During the course of proceedings, some 10 bills were moved by different lawmakers for legislation. A bill "The Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, 2021" was moved by Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari. The purpose of the bill is to promote, protect and effectively ensure the independence, impartiality, safety and freedom of expression of journalists and media...