The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Monday took exception to a misperception doing the rounds in social and news media alleging violation of intellectual property rights of a commercial concern in the launch of ‘PRC Muhafiz’ application.
A spokesperson for the PRCS clarified that the application was launched on purely non-commercial and humanitarian basis aimed at addressing the COVID-19 challenge in an organized manner by fully utilizing the potential of the PRCS trained volunteers. It is in no way similar to the ‘Muhafiz’ App at all in terms of its name, logo, features and usage, the spokesperson said in a press statement issued by the PRCS.
The spokesperson said the ‘PRC Muhafiz’ application launched on Sunday by the President of Pakistan and Patron-in-Chief of the PRCS Dr Arif Alviis free of cost initiative under which all the PRCS volunteers referred to as the PRC Muhafiz will collect the data on COVID-19 and use it for a better and prompt response to the challenge.
The spokesperson said a year ago a commercial concern had approached the PRCS,proposing collaboration in the launch of its application ‘Muhafiz’. The proposal was mulled over and rejectedas it was capital-intensive and not in line with the PRCS mandate. After rejection of the proposal, the company approached the PRCS through different quarters but it was not accepted as the App was not viable.
The spokesperson again clarified said the PRCS is a purely humanitarian organization and it acted strictly as per its mandate tailored in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of Pakistan.”Such baseless, mischievous, and un-called for propaganda serves to dent the image of an organization that has been selflessly serving the humanity since the creation of Pakistan,” the statement concluded.
