At the conference Pakistan would have reiterated its calls for export controls on dual-use biotechnologies to be revoked.
The vice chancellor did not explain the reason for the postponement of the conference at the eleventh hour. The International Review conference was scheduled to be held in Geneva from Dec 5-22, with the participation of 165 member states, including Pakistan.
Irfanur Rehman Shami, director of general disarmament at the ministry of foreign affairs, Dr Anwar Nasim, chairman of the International Council for the Life Sciences – Pakistan Chapter, and Prof Dr Muhammad Masoom Yasinzai were scheduled to fly to Geneva to represent Pakistan.
As the side event, Pakistan was to sign a treaty at the conference on the dual-use of biotechnologies in universities.
“Bio safety and security is an important issue for the world community”, Yasinzai said. He would have signed the treaty on behalf of Pakistan and all universities in the country.
The review conference was expected to discuss a highly divisive issue concerning the implementation of Article X of the BWC, which calls for international cooperation in the use of biotechnology for peaceful purposes, including transfers of relevant equipment, materials and know-how.
Pakistan, Iran and Cuba have long called for dismantling the export controls on dual-use biotechnologies, coordinated by an informal forum of 41 like-minded countries called the Australia Group, on the grounds that restricting trade with certain BWC member states is discriminatory.
The US and other members of the Australia Group strongly oppose this idea because of the risk that transferred equipment and materials could be diverted for prohibited purposes.
The BWC came about it 1975. It was “the first treaty to ban the development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2011.
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Please note that the Biological Weapons Convention is still going on and has not been cancelled, contrary to the statement made in the article. The side event with the Pakistanis has been cancelled, but the BWC is going on from Dec 5-22. Kindly make that correction as this article tends to fool the reader.