ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):Australia’s assistance to women in Pakistan through health and agriculture-related projects would contribute to reduction in maternal and child mortality rate and ensure women’s economic empowerment, visiting Ambassador for Women and Girls Dr Sharman Stone said on Tuesday.
Dr Sharman Stone, a former member of Australian parliament, is currently on a three-day visit to Islamabad where she launched the $6 million project ‘Saving Lives of Women and Girls in Cross Border Area in Pakistan’ and also the gender-based strategy for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Pakistan.
“By helping women stay healthy, we help them participate equally in society, education and economy,” Dr Sharman Stone told APP in an exclusive interview following the launch of health and agriculture-related projects for women in Pakistan.
Dr Sharman, who has a 20-year experience in politics, termed education the key to human development for both boys and girls.
“Whether in Australia or Pakistan, children need access to enrollment at schools, good curriculum, well-trained teachers, besides toilets and change facilities particularly for girls so they do not miss school on puberty,” she said.
She lauded Pakistan’s initiatives including legislation on increasing marriageable age up to 18 years and making 10 percent participation of women voters mandatory for validation of election.
She mentioned that Australia was one of a few countries in the world with compulsory voting in polls and imposed fine over non-participation.
On challenges for both Pakistani and Australian women to enter and remain in politics, Dr Sharman said even today, Australian women did not enjoy parity and had only 27 percent representation in the parliament. She said reserved seats for women in Pakistan’s parliament was a significant step towards gender equity.
Ambassador Sharman stressed the need to develop an atmosphere of respect among both men and women to eliminate gender-based violence, and said “there is no magic solution or silver bullet for complex issues, but a correct gender-specific approach”.
Elimination of gender bias is important because it could destroy a women’s health and could leave her with economic, physical or psychological scars, she pointed.
She said Australia was helping Pakistan to establish a Male Champions of Change chapter to step up besides women to promote gender equality.
She mentioned that it would bring together Pakistani male business leaders who can lead by example to promote inclusive workplaces and women in leadership on issues including sexual harassment, pay gap and flexible hours.
On media’s role, Dr Sharman said it could be extremely powerful in changing attitudes of society and emphasized that cases of rape and child abuse needed an emphatic understanding while reporting instead of giving salacious details and blaming of victims.
Also, Australia and Pakistan Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration on water, food and energy security.
Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson and Secretary for Water Resources Shamail Khawaja inked the MoU at the margins of the Indus Knowledge Forum, a workshop organised by the Australian and Pakistani Governments.
High Commissioner, Adamson said Australia was committed to helping Pakistan achieve water, food and energy security and had been partnering with Pakistan in water and agriculture since 1980s.
The Forum is part of a long-term Australian commitment, under the Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP), to build capacity for integrated management of water, food and energy resources in the Indus Basin. The Australian government is providing Pakistan with A$15 million (2016-20) in support under the SDIP.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):The world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies appear to be dodging an estimated $3.8 billion in tax per year across 16 countries, reveals a new report by Oxfam released on Tuesday.
The report, ‘Prescription for Poverty,’ analyzes the financial disclosures from Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott, between 2013 and 2015. In the 7 developing countries where data was available (Pakistan, India, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Thailand), companies appear to avoid an estimated $112 million in taxes every year.
If these governments invested this money in healthcare, it could pay for 10 million girls to be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, one of the deadliest forms of cancer responsible for the death of one woman every two minutes across the globe. Nearly 90 percent of these deaths are women in developing countries.
Abbott and Pfizer account for nearly all the $4.7 million that would be due to Ecuador, and Pfizer alone for the $1.7 million that would be due to Pakistan. Tax dodging is fueling the inequality crisis, widening the gap between rich and poor. When drug companies dodge tax, it is the poorest in society who suffer the most as governments seek to balance their budgets by cutting essential services and raising other forms of tax. Often it is poor women who rely more heavily on public healthcare services, provide care for loved ones when healthcare systems fail, and foot the bill for regressive taxes, who pay the highest price.
Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International’s Executive Director, said: “No one should watch their children suffer without healthcare or be forced to choose between buying food or the medicines they need to stay alive. Yet this is happening every day and the way drug companies do business is contributing to this tragedy.
“Drug companies appear to be cheating governments out of tax revenues that could be invested in healthcare. They are pricing medicines out of the reach of poor people. And they are using their power and influence to torpedo any attempt to cut the cost of drugs and police their tax practices.”
Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbot produce well-known brands such as Neutrogena, Anadin, and Tylenol, as well as lifesaving medicines.  They are among the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies with global revenues topping $1.8 trillion in the 10 years from 2006 to 2015.
Oxfam’s analysis suggests these four companies are shifting profits out of countries where they do their business and into tax havens that charge little or no tax. The companies are secretive about their finances but the available data reveals average pre-tax profit margins of just six percent in countries with standard tax rates, compared to 31 percent in the tax havens of the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Singapore. Such practices, while not necessarily illegal, are not in line with the spirit of the law.
‘Prescription for Poverty’ also outlines how the companies undermine poor people’s health by overpricing medicines – putting them out of reach for cash strapped public health services and poor patients. The report also details how the pharmaceutical industry are using their economic and political clout to shape government policy on tax, trade and health in their own interest – particularly in the US where the industry spends over $200 million every year on lobbyists and political donations.
Equally, while tax avoidance figures appear lower in developing countries, the impact can be more severe because poorer countries often have weaker public services, have a higher poverty rate, and rely more heavily on corporate taxes to fund public services. The UN estimates that corporate tax avoidance costs poor countries $100 billion a year.
Byanyima said “These drug companies present themselves as bastions of social responsibility, but their business practices tell a different story. Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Abbot must pay their taxes; make their medicines affordable; and stop rigging government rules in ways that undermine the fight against poverty and inequality. “
“Governments must also insist that companies publish financial information for every country where they do business, so it is clear if they are paying their fair share of tax,” added Byanyima.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):Pakistan and Denmark Tuesday agreed to ensure better coordination to facilitate introduction of
therapeutic goods originated from both sides.
This was agreed during a meeting between Danish Ambassador
to Pakistan, Rolf Michael Hay Pereira Holmboe and Chief Executive
Officer (CEO), Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, Dr. Sheikh
Akhter Hussain.
Both sides discussed promotion of pharmaceutical and
nutraceutical trade.
The CEO DRAP apprised the Ambassador about regulations in
Pakistan for registration of drugs and health & OTC products.
He informed that DRAP regulates medicine in the country
according to international best practices of quality, safety and
efficacy.
Furthermore, DRAP encourages local manufacturers
to export to stringently regulated industries.
In this regard, DRAP is moving towards adaptation of
international best practices for harmonization of regulatory
functions for ensuring better quality, safety and efficacy of
therapeutic goods as well as providing a way for local
manufacturers to export these products.
The Danish Ambassador emphasized on opportunities
in his country by meeting regulatory requirements.
He also informed that nutraceutical products can
also be exported from Pakistan after fulfillment of
these requirements.
Similarly, leading Danish companies in Pharmaceutical
manufacturing have launched various educational programmes
in Punjab regarding improving health of diabetic population.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed ‘The West Pakistan Juvenile smoking (Repeal) Bill, 2018’, arguing that an identical new law covers all the relevant provisions of juvenile smoking. The Bill was moved by Minister for National Health Services Aamir Mehmood Kiyani. According to the Bill, the enactment of the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance, 2002, the said law had lost its importance and now all relevant provisions were already covered in the said Ordinance. Therefore, there was no need of retention of the West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking Ordinance, 1959.
According to the statement of objects and reasons, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan in its report while discussing Repeal of Obsolete and Redundant Legislations’ proposed to repeal the West Pakistan Juvenile Smoking Ordinance, 1959 (Ordinance No XII of 1959) in view of Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smoket’s Health Ordinance, 2002.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Fraz Tuesday said that the increase
in natural gas prices was imperative to put the economy back on track
which is in shambles due to the mismanagement of previous government
of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).
Responding to Points of Public importance raised by Senators,
he said the gas prices should have been enhanced by the government
of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).
He said the natural gas price increase
would not effect life line consumers.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP)::The session of National Assembly started here at the Parliament House Tuesday with
recitation of verses from the Holy Quran at 10:42 a.m.
Later the Naat Sharif was recited. Speaker National Assembly
Asad Qaiser was in the Chair.

ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):Chairperson for National Commission for Human Development (NCHD),
former Senator Razina Alam Khan Tuesday said education is the best remedy to all the
problems prevailing in the form of extremism, poverty, inequality and social
injustice in the society.
“We can only overcome country’s socio-economic problems when
we have a literate society along with skill development”, said the chairperson
NCHD in a Senior Management Meeting, held here.
She said that, there was need to devise policies which could
address the causes such as social inequality, gender disparities, ethnic and
linguistic disadvantages and gaps between geographic areas.
“Providing an equal education opportunity in the remote
areas is the basic right of all the citizens of the country”, she stressed.
Providing free and compulsory education to the poorest which is engrained with
good quality will make sense, while flexible approaches towards learning and multi-grade
teaching through Non-formal education in remote areas can cut the cost to the
lowest and most effective in the under-developed countries, she observed.
She said, NCHD had adopted a two pronged approach to address
the issues of illiteracy in the country, Adult Literacy (for age group 14 and
above) and Primary Education both Formal Education (for age group 5-9) and
Non-Formal education (for age group 10-14) to achieve 90 per cent literacy rate
in the country.
NCHD has made literate to 3.96 million since its inception
and providing education to 335,164 children in NCHD 5,949 Feeder Schools in the
remote areas to the marginalized group, she briefed.
She added that, NCHD has exercised a number of innovative
approaches to reach the marginalized group; we are working in jails with the
aim to provide education to the convicts and make them useful citizens. NCHD
had approached to the learners in seminaries with reforms and introduced primary
education along with religious education in order to bring them in the
mainstream of higher education, she said.
Currently, NCHD is successfully working in 100 Seminaries of
former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK),
Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), she further added.
In collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA), the commission had launched a model of Non-formal School system where 20
schools are functional in order to provide education to the children of age
10-14 who could neither be admitted to the primary school and nor belongs to
adult literacy, she informed.
She said that, we the nation of 207 million, where one
fourth or 22.6 million children of 5-9 age groups are still out of school and
40 per cent of adult population are illiterate hampers development and progress
of the country.
It is the obligation of government of Pakistan to provide education to all the marginalized groups
of the society, she further said.
NCHD had formulated a National Plan of Action (NPA) under Federal Ministry of Education and Technical Training to achieve 90 per cent literacy rate in the country, she added.
This NPA will envisage that the provincial authorities will use the plans to transform policy decisions into action at the ground level, she added.
NCHD established National Training Institute (NTI) to ensure quality education in its feeder schools and adult literacy program along with other projects, she informed.
NTI will build capacity of the professionals working in the field of literacy and non-formal education, she further informed.
NTI will also prepare Accelerated Learning Modules and condensed
syllabus that would provide (OOSC) a second chance or opportunity to take part
in educational activities, she maintained.