Officials of the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) say Pakistan has assured Afghanistan of cooperating in the health sector. A spokesperson of the ministry of public health Sharafat Zaman has told The Kabul Times that Pakistan will cooperate with Afghanistan in capacity building of Afghan doctors and medics.
According to the MoPH spokesperson, acting minister of public health of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan IEA Qalandar Ebad in his recent visit to Pakistan has met with the country’s public health minister Abdul Qadir Patel to discuss the country’s cooperation in Afghanistan in health sector.
“For the first time, the postgraduate training program of doctors ‘College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP)’ will be opened in Kabul and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be soon signed between the health ministries of the two countries,” Sharafat Zaman said, adding that Pakistan would soon start with training of 20 specialists and increase the number in future course.
He further said that Khyber Medical University Peshawar, which had trained hundreds of Afghan doctors, would establish medical college campuses in Afghanistan to help the country achieve self-sufficiency in healthcare services.
In his recent visit to Pakistan, acting minister of public health Qalandar Ebad visited Lahore University, and met the university’s officials and academic figures who have assured of their support and cooperation in the capacity building of Afghan doctors at the Pakistan-supported Jinah Hospital in Kabul.
Acting Minister of Public Health and his accompanying delegation also visited the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences during their visit to Pakistan. Both sides discussed and agreed that Afghan doctors would be provided with the opportunity to participate in the institute’s postgraduate courses each year.
Sharafat Zaman further said that minister of public health during his recent visit to the neighboring country has also met with the Director of the National Polio Eradication Emergency Operation Center, Dr. Nik Wali Shah Momin, chairman of the Polio Eradication Section of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organization, Hamid Al-Jaafari and Michael Galloway, representative of the Bill Gates Foundation in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Public Health of the Islamic Emirate (IEA) has made continued efforts to strengthen Afghanistan’s health system as MoPH minister has visited neighboring and regional countries to attract their cooperation in the country’s health sector.
Samiullah Momand
Pakistan to cooperate with Afghanistan in health sector, MoPH
