KARACHI  -     Sindh Minister for Prisons Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said currently 385 prisoners including two women were suffering from chronic diseases of which 84 male prisoners had been diagnosed with AIDS.

Replying to a question during Question Hour in Sindh Assembly, the minister said that till June 2017 as many as 2,847 prisoners suffering from Hepatitis across Sindh and out of which 1,200 inmates had the chronic disease at Central Prison Hyderabad only.

Giving details, the minister said 171 Hepatic cases were reported at Central Prison Karachi, 42 at Central Prison Sukkur, 46 at Central Prison Larkana, 424 at District Prison Mirpurkhas, 154 at District Prison Sanghar, 55 at District Prison Badin, 481 at District Prison Shaheed Benazirabad and 65 at Youth Offenders Industrial School in Karachi till June 2017.

Nasir said that now all-out measures were being taken and the inmates were given all possible medical facilities in jail of the province. He said that ill patients were being kept separately to ensure that their diseases do not get transferred to others.

Inmates’ food

To another question, the minister said that there was no provision for the payment of allowances for daily food and beverages to the prisoners; however, they were provided three-time meal daily as per Pakistan Prison Rules. The Grand Democratic Alliance lawmaker Arif Mustafa Jatoi asked the current daily food and beverage allowances provided to prisoners under the prison rules and daily calorific value of the meals provided to them.

Nasir said that in Sindh, the prisoners were being provided best food on which the Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani - who was currently confined in jail on corruption charges - said that meat, vegetables and other items are given to inmates as per schedule.

Mobile Jammers

Separately, the Minister said he cannot give a deadline to remove the mobile phone jammers around and from the central prison Karachi. Jamal Siddiqui of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said the people who reside nearby the prisons face difficulties as the jammers installed inside the jails also affect the residential areas. The Minister acknowledged the issue but said that the step was taken for security reasons as many hardcore criminals and terrorists were also detained in the jails.

Pakistan at crossroads of

health challenges

Pakistan is at the crossroads of public health challenges as the majority of its population is vulnerable to diseases and poor people are the worst victim of the situation, said Dow University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Prof Saeed Quraishy.

This burden of disease can be controlled at relatively low cost interventions and best BCC practices through primary and secondary care levels. He said while speaking in his welcome address at a Lecture by International Speaker and Australian Consultant of behavioural change communication, Dr. Tahir Turk who talked about “Behaviour Change Science for More Effective Communication Strategies in Pakistan”.

The lecture was also addressed by Dr. Nilofer Safdar and Dr. Kashif Shafique. Prof. Mohammad Saeed Quraishy said that BCC strategy should be designed to bring change in behaviour, attitudes and practices at individual, household level and community at large by raising awareness on best public health practices, improved personal hygiene, household practices, help collective actions in communities, improve the provision of health services and supplement the overall enabling environment for good public health outcomes.

Guest Special Dr. Tahir Turk said in his lecture that Pakistani people are more habitual of taking imbalanced diet. Lack of knowledge in most of the people is promoting smoking, alcohol drinking and fast food consumption. He further said that irresponsible behaviour is leading towards diseases and eventual deaths. For this purpose, there is a need to establish healthcare centres where people should be provided information, knowledge and awareness about behaviour change sciences and health communication strategies.

He added that research programs should be started to study behaviour changes and strict health policies should be devised to stop smoking, alcohol and junk food consumption. He said that social media could be best used to create awareness at individual and collective level regarding the issue in consideration. He accepted that this is not an easy task to change the behaviours of adults at individual and collective levels but yet, it is also not impossible to do so.

Principal of School of Public Health, Dr. Kashif Shafique said that we can eliminate the risk of cancer and heart diseases up to 50 percent by eliminating smoking, maintaining a balanced diet, and adding exercise in our daily routine to avoid obesity. We can also stay away from 70 percent of the infections by bringing about changes in our habits and behaviours.

At the end of the lecture, Prof. Mohammad Saeed Quraishy presented souvenir to the Guest Special, Dr. Tahir Turk. The Pro Vice Chancellor of Dow University, Prof. Zarnaz Wahid was also present at the event.