Foreign aid: ‘$37.1m in AIDS funds have been squandered’

Petitioner argues that Government is responsible for providing health care facilities, accountable for donated money.

KARACHI:

Four international agencies donated $37.1 million to help people suffering from Aids, but most of it was wasted and a negligible amount was spent on screening of people, submitted, Syed Muhammad Iqbal Kazmi, of the Human Rights Commission for South Asia before the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

Kazmi said that, under articles 37 and 38 of the Constitution, the government is responsible for providing health facilities. He said there are 153,000 HIV Aids patients in Pakistan of which 52% - 79,560 - are from Sindh. The petitioner claimed that the awareness campaign was also affected by the wastage of funds. He asked the court to find out where the $37.1 million was spent and to tell the respondents to allocate more funds for the benefit of Aids patients.

The bench issued notices to the Sindh finance, health, planning and development secretaries and the Sindh HIV Aids control programme manager for Aug 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th,  2011.