Dr. Adil Najam, Vice Chancellor LUMS, Abdul Razzak Dawood, Rector LUMS, Respected members of the Board of Governors(BoG), Faculty members of LUMS, parents, friends, and the most important and valuable amongst us - the class of 2013. It is a great honour and privilege for me to be present here at this august gathering. My heartiest congratulations to the graduating class of 2013 and their parents for getting their dream converted into reality.
I shall be failing in my duty if I don’t congratulate the faculty members of LUMS and this institution for providing an atmosphere conducive to academic excellence.
Prof. Adil Najam, while being generous to me, has been a little unfair to the class of 2013. I am a medical doctor who is basically a matriculate with a tunnel vision and blinkers on eyes with no match to the academic excellence of your academic staff. Now we are both in a fix. I happen to be your guest and must say something while you have to bear me for some time.
You are best asset of our society in view of your outstanding academic record but perhaps you may be categorise somewhere as someone who is a product of a developing world. Let us see what is a developing world? It is a birthplace of mankind. It is the birthplace of all religious philosophies. It has been once the cradles of civilisation with a glorious past.
But today we stand at a crossroad where we have become the victim of exploitation, inequality and injustice. We have 80% world population with 20% resources in contrast with the developed world, which has 20% of the population and 80% of the resources at its disposal.Unfortunately in our own country we have been practising the same inequality. Our 80% population is either on or below the poverty line.
In such a situation, you are amongst the fortunate and privileged ones. When you leave your campus with degree in your hand, thousands of opportunities would be knocking your door within the country and abroad promising a very protected and shinning career.
But there is the other side of the coin. Pakistan has the world’s second highest number of children with no access to school. Presently, the country’s children population estimated to be 85 million out of which 27 million children of school going age have no access to school education. In total, 49.5 million adults are illiterate, the third largest number at a global level. Pakistan spends only 2.3% of its GDP on education.
You may wondering as what all these children were doing while you were going to nursery, to primary school, to college and, finally, to this prestigious institution.
The vast population of drop out children is unfortunately used as child labour in order to become a part of the economic producing unit of their families. They were rag pickers on the streets while you were being driven to school. Some of them were forced to beg, some ran away from their home as they were fed up with starvation.
Some fell victims to criminals and abused, while the rest became unskilled labourers performing jobs which may be below to human dignity. It is the poverty and economic compulsions which drove the mothers to rent their babies to beggars for small amount of money.
This is one of the greatest tragedies of our society. Nation has been robbed of this great potential wealth of educated young men and women.
Regrettably, the health sector of our country is no better. If you look at our health facilities, there are 0.6 hospitals available for a population of 100,000, with 27 registered doctors per 100,000. We suffer almost with the highest infant and maternal mortality rates. There are about 87,000 deaths every year of children from preventable diseases like polio, pneumonia, Hepatitis B, diphtheria, measles, tetanus, TB. Our Health Budget is as low as 0.8% of our GDP.
The question arises as who should pay for health?
Government or the patients?
Government is overburdened with defense and debt servicing along with the system which is plagued with bad governance and corruption.
On the other hand 80% of our population lives on or below the poverty line. When you don’t know from where the next meal would come, medicine becomes a luxury.
What is the way forward?
We have created a model based on the philosophy that every human being has the right of access to health care free with dignity irrespective of cast, color, creed and religious beliefs. It is a partnership between the community and the government where doctors are catalyst and patients are beneficiary. Medical treatment is available round the clock all along the year. Any suffering patient can enter any time as we believe in refusing nobody. There is also a constant effort on our part to be at the cutting edge of technology. Our model is autonomous, transparent and accountable to society and the government.
What we have achieved from this model?
It started as an eight-bed unit in seventies and now transcended into the largest centre of urology, nephrology, dialysis and transplantation in the region with over 4000 renal transplants. It has also become a huge cancer centre, largest lithotripsy unit and only centre for paediatric urology, nephrology and transplantation. These are few to mention. We have also established a postgraduate centre for doctors, schools of medical technology and nursing. Degree awarding status has been given to SIMS.
In developing world there are only two options for ailing person. Pay or die. We have created a third option in renal diseases where we don’t let anyone die because he can’t afford to live.
The most redeeming feature of our model is that nothing is borrowed. Thanks to the people of our country because the whole concept is Pakistani, supported by Pakistanis and run by Pakistanis. The roots lie in the soil of Pakistan. No country in the world can match this example.
But be also mindful that there are challenges awaited in the days to come. Medicine is going to be changed. A new era is going to dawn – the era of cloning, genetic engineering, and stem cell research leading to regenerative medicine, in which there will be repair, replacement and organogenesis.
Can we have access to these technologies at home? Not unless we invest in human development and especially in education; not unless we stop squandering our wealth, by denying the right of education and better life for millions of children who deserves not only our support but equal opportunities.
As regards you I am not asking you to cough up money for donation but please own the philosophy that every human being has got a right to access health and education free with dignity. Owning the philosophy on your part will change the fate of this nation. With your intellect and your education you will be able to ensure justice for the common man and for equitable distribution of the resources so that the children will attend school not forced to pick garbage from dumps or any kind of child labour.
Be aware of the skeptics. They will say inequality has been around since time immemorial. But the reality is otherwise. Our Prophet (PBUH) strongly believed in the equality of mankind, or “Musawat”, which is a basic tenet of Islam.
You can stand on your two feet and say that at LUMS we are born to make impossible possible.
