Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that the global inequity in healthcare was an important problem, citing that the Covid-19 pandemic had “exposed” these imbalances and gaps.

“Imagine the global North and the global South; distribution of vaccines and so on and so forth,” he said while speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Redefining Global Health Agenda’ during the special meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh.

When the premier visited Saudi Arabia in 2003, he said that he was “struck by a very nasty cancer”. PM Shehbaz said that he was then flown to New York and had to undergo surgery costing “thousands of dollars”.

He said: “And I wondered how many people in my country can afford this kind of expensive treatment — not very many.” He added that upon returning home, he was elected the chief minister of Punjab and his government built hospitals specialising in kidney and liver diseases as well as cancer.

Climate change had “completely changed the landscape”, he said and added: “Pakistan does not contribute [to] even a fraction of emissions. Yet we are on the red list of climate change and in 2022, we experienced the worst floods in Pakistan […] and we had to invest hundreds and billions of rupees to rehabilitate people.”

As the Punjab chief minister, he said that he was able to provide healthcare to the people of the province. He said that he also built a kidney and liver hospital, saying it was “probably the best in South Asia”.

While talking about the 2011 dengue outbreak, he said that it was “probably the biggest” around the globe.

“I must confess that I did not know much about dengue. But from six in the morning till late at night, I would have meetings […] it was a challenge of sorts. I had machines […] placed in hospitals […] and through a decree I made all labs responsible for providing tests at a meagre cost,” he said.

“I think this is how we can achieve results with meagre resources. But that does not mean that the yawning gap between global North and global South should not be addressed,” he said.

While talking about polio, the premier praised the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for providing vaccination efforts.