President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Sardar Masood Khan, on Sunday urged medical fraternity particularly physicians of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to voice their concerns over the worst health crisis in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
“The people in the IIOJK are faced with the worst health crisis of their history as the Indian occupation forces use pellet guns as a mean of crowed control maiming, blinding, and injuring them”, he asserted.
He was addressing a gathering of over 500 doctors and senior health consultants across the country at an annual mid-summer meet in the State’s metropolis on Sunday. Organized by Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM), the event was also addressed by President of PSIM, Prof Javed Akram, Senior Vice President Prof Aziz Rehman, Dr Somia Iqtadar, Prof Bikha Ram Devrajani and others, AJK President office told media on Sunday.
The AJK President said IIOJK people not only suffered from grievous eye injuries but they also have been denied access to communication as well as all level of primary, secondary or tertiary healthcare amidst year-long lockdown.
The occupied territory lacks healthcare staff, drugs, surgical material and the equipment needed for healthcare, he said and cited a report published by the Wall Street Journal, which had suggested that hospitals in IIOJK have become graveyards because of a crisis like humanitarian and health emergency situation prevails there.
Citing another report released by Doctors Sans Frontier (MSF) compiled in collaboration with the University of Kashmir, Khan said some sort of mental distress, anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) prevails among nearly 1.8 million Kashmiri adults – 45 per cent of the region’s adult population.
“Children seeing killings, physical torture, sexual abuses and destroyed properties before them are particularly suffering from PTSD,” he added.
The AJK President said affiliation of medical colleges with University of Health Sciences (UHS) saying that this would help AJK improve quality of medical education being imparted to the students in the state.
Referring to the recent spread of the coronavirus pandemic, he said Pakistan and Azad Kashmir had risen to the occasion and responded to the catastrophe with courage and resilience.
“By the grace of Almighty Allah, we have done well despite all the limitation by keeping the number of fatalities extremely low,” he said. The AJK president said at present, three public sector medical colleges and one in the private sector were producing about 400 graduates annually.
He said they have few very good hospitals in the state, but they lack equipment, adding, medical facilities and technology needed to fight communicable and non-communicable diseases.
However, he added, they were gearing up to give priority to the health sector in our development activities. The AJK president urged the doctors and medical experts to prepare themselves for learning new technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and cloud computing that have an impact on medical sciences to meet the challenges of future and to compete with the world.
Meanwhile, Pakistani nation expressed full solidarity with the people of IIOJK while celebrating the Defence Day on Sunday, as the Kashmiris and Pakistanis share strong religious, historical, cultural and geographical bonds with each other. A report released by Kashmir Media Service in connection with the Defense Day, today, said that on September 6 every year, the Pakistanis remind the world that the Kashmir dispute is the unfinished agenda of Pakistan’s completion and no power on earth can stop Jammu and Kashmir to become a part of the country.
On this day, the people of Pakistan assure their unwavering support to the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle. The day is celebrated in Pakistan and across Jammu and Kashmir to honor the sacrifices rendered by Pakistani soldiers in defending their borders, the report added. The Kashmir freedom movement is also intended to further solidify the defence of Pakistan, the report said and added that the Kashmiris’ struggle is for ensuring defence of Pakistan.
