Pakistan becomes IAEA board of governors' member for 21st time

• FO says it's a recognition of its commitment to IAEA's objectives.
• Pakistan also elected president for 10th Review meeting of CNS.
• Country is also the founding member of intergovernmental body.

Pakistan has been elected as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors (BoG) for the 21st time.

The Foreign Office said in a statement on Friday that the country was elected by consensus at the 68th Session of the IAEA’s General Conference in Vienna, from the Middle East and South Asia region, for the two-year term beginning this month.

The development is a recognition of its long-standing commitment to the aims and objectives of the IAEA in promoting peaceful uses of nuclear energy as well as its positive contribution to the formulation of the IAEA’s policies and programmes, the FO added.

It is to be noted that Pakistan is a founding member of the IAEA and has enjoyed longstanding and mutually beneficial collaboration with the Agency on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Earlier this month, Pakistan was also elected as the President for the Tenth Review meeting of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS).

It is to be noted that the country hosts the Anchor Centre for Cancer Care under IAEA's Rays of Hope initiative and four Collaboration Centres in the areas of food and agriculture, nuclear safety and security, water resource management and innovative nuclear technology applications.

Moreover, there are six operating nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 3,530 megawatts of clean energy, whereas another nuclear power plant of 1200 MW is under construction. 

The 68th General Conference (GC) has brought many laurels and honours for the South Asian country that are very significant in nature.

Prior to this, Nuclear Medicine, Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute (NORI), a flagship hospital of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in Islamabad, earned accolades at the international level when its contribution to cancer diagnosis, treatment and sharing of expertise with regional member states was acknowledged by none other than IAEA Director General (DG) Rafael Mariano Grossi himself during the two sideline events of the ongoing 68th General Conference.

The second side event of the GC was a Member State Event organised by Pakistan and was titled, "Pakistan – IAEA: Collaboration of Hope".

The event highlighted Atomic Energy Cancer Hospital (AECH) — NORI, one of the nineteen cancer hospitals of PAEC and a major resource hospital for capacity building of health professionals involved in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.