President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday while alluding to the significance of the technological advancement and innovations in diverse fields and the availability of knowledge, stressed the need to share the latest scientific breakthroughs, experiences and achievements for the greater benefits of entire humanity.
The president said that the availability of knowledge should not be contained under the mere tag of ‘copyrights’ as greater accessibility could help humanity to move through the current economic, social and global challenges.
The president was speaking as a chief guest at a ceremony to mark the 29th-anniversary celebration of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) at the Aiwan e Sadr. President for sharing scientific knowledge to benefit entire humanity
The event was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, former diplomats, members of academia and the media.
The president said that scientific knowledge should be shared among the nations without any hindrance by resetting the priorities which were focused somewhat elsewhere.
“Open knowledge resources should be utilized and the world should work for the mutual transfer of knowledge. The injustices should be addressed,” he emphasised.
The president further said that transformation in the world could take place in the presence of ‘ethics or humanity-based order’, adding the new world would be dependent upon these shifts. While the rules-based world order was dominated by material-driven priorities, he opined.
He regretted that contrary to the requirements of the world, the prevalent tendency was towards the ultra-rich who had been becoming richer while the poor of the world were mired in poverty and deprivation.
He stressed that just and equitable distribution of wealth in the world could alleviate the sufferings of humanity.
“The world is not ready to change the exploitative attitude and end exploitation,” he said and referred to a recent report of OXFAM which said that billionaires had doubled their income while about 5 billion people in the world witnessed shrinkage in their earnings.
President Alvi said that genome sequencing was one of the major breakthroughs in the scientific world which had become more accessible to people due to the exponential pace of scientific developments.
