Karachi : Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said decision of the government to register the whole population for vaccination is laudable.

However, the government should consider start registration of the whole population immediately as it is a matter of grave concern, he said. 

Mian Zahid Hussain said that so far government has vaccinated 1.1 million people while 14000 have been vaccinated by private concerns which is unsatisfactory therefore efforts should be redoubled as over five thousand cases and the increasing death toll is unacceptable, he said. 

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the planning minister has said that daily 125,000 people would be vaccinated after Eid but this pace will also take almost seven resulting in heavy social and economic losses. 

He said that the third wave of virus is lethal and there is no surety about more waves in future while the global population cannot be left at the mercy of the virus. 

Some western and eastern companies are not enough to vaccinate billions of people therefore all the countries should be allowed and financed to make their own vaccine. 

The developed nations and global institutions should come forward for the purpose while patent and IPR laws should be relaxed to keep the price of vaccines at the minimum level. 

He said that World Trade Organisation should realise that profit of some companies is not important than human lives therefore patient laws for the production of vaccine should be relaxed as many countries can make their own vaccine but cannot pay hefty amounts to multinationals that have developed the drug.

The developers of vaccine should prefer the welfare of the masses over profit and share their information to save millions of lives which will also bring an end to vaccine elitism, he demanded.