KARACHI: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Friday said the government was eager to take advantage of modern technologies for enhanced access to preventive and curative healthcare for the people, particularly the most vulnerable ones.

Addressing the HealthTech Summit held by the Aga Khan University (AKU), Kakar said the advent of modern technology in the health sector was an exciting time for patients, healthcare providers as well as the government.

He said the government needed support from the experts and professionals using modern technologies in the health sector as the provision of universal health coverage was the constitutional responsibility of the government.

“Through technology, our dream of providing quality health services will be fulfilled,” he added.

The interim prime minister also highlighted the role of the private sector and philanthropists in fulfilling the dream of universal health coverage.

He said the potential of technology to reshape healthcare was immense as gene therapy was no more a fiction but a reality.

Digital technology and artificial intelligence were powerful tools for healthcare providers to ensure the diagnosis far quicker than ever, he added.

Calling the AKU a national asset for Pakistan, he lauded the institution’s global ranking as well as its services during Covid-19 in the form of training thousands of professionals and setting up health clinics in the flood-hit areas.

He said the AKU graduates were positively impacting society as ethical leaders and innovators and urged other institutions to emulate the best practices of the institution.

He said the services of the AKU in Pakistan and across the borders, were testimony to the vision and generosity of Prince Aga Kahn who believed that the people of Pakistan deserved the best of education and health facilities.

Kakar said the technology had implications for the entire way of life including ethics, religion and democracy.

He also highlighted the challenges posed by modern technology tools which necessitated the role of regulations and the government.

However, he said instead of containing the change, one should engage with it to use it productively.

AKU President Sulaiman Shahabuddin, in his address, apprised the gathering about the summit and its significance.

He also thanked the caretaker prime minister for attending the summit which he said manifested the government’s commitment to the health sector.

Lt Gen (retd) Dr Nigar Johar called for collaborated efforts to leverage modern technology as digitalisation had brought improvements in multiple fields.

She said the coordinated approach for public-private partnership at national, regional, and international levels for the achievement of universal health coverage, was inevitable.

Separately, in an interactive session with the AKU students, Kakar reaffirmed the equal rights for minority communities and called for enforcing meritocracy and social opportunities for their uplift and mainstreaming.

He said the minorities were equal Pakistanis as Madina State had also guaranteed equal responsibilities and rights for the citizens.

Calling for infusing a sense of confidence in the people, he said that meritocracy should be enforced, and social opportunities for minorities should be created.

To a question, he said that the people of Pakistan enjoyed freedom of expression and considering the country’s political history, any particular incident could not be associated with the government of that particular term.

He said that the incidents involving the violations of freedom of speech were not limited to a particular government.

The interim prime minister, responding to a query by a university student about the arrest of journalists, said that during the tenure, he was referring to, the journalists were shot at and faced many such acts which were against the freedom of expression.

“You have a freedom of expression and speech. You spoke your heart before the prime minister.

After this, your allegation of no freedom of speech would carry lesser weight,” he remarked.

About the rights and status of Gilgit Baltistan, he said the GB was and would remain part of Pakistan.

He said the matter of rights should be tackled peacefully without any resentment.

“The political procedure should move forward. The GB should be our Singapore. Our identities are associated with each other,” he remarked.

To a question, he said after the 18th amendment, health was a devolved subject with the provinces having all the funding to spend on the sector.

The visionary leadership is essential to address the challenges, especially the management of funds, he added. About the lack of education research, Kakar said allocating billions of rupees for the parliamentarians amidst the higher education and research crisis was unjustified.

He said some individuals might have this realisation, but it should be at the policymaker level.

He urged the students to keep raising their voices for the promotion of education to jolt the people at the helm of affairs.

To another query, he said he was not worried about the educated people moving abroad as they were not divorced from the society rather they would continue to contribute to the country’s development through their remittances.

“If a nurse or doctor is joining the global supply chain and contributing to the GDP, this is not a curse.

This is quite natural. The gaps should be filled. Of our huge population, if some useful individuals go abroad, they are not divorced from our society,” he commented.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, he said that the educational institutions had always been very close to his heart.

He also gave a historical account of the education and research from the Greek period to the modern era experiencing unprecedented modern tools.