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Capacity Building activities arranged in last years are following; i. One day workshop, “Development of National Biosafety Roadmaps in Pakistan”, Organized by KOICA, in collaboration with NBC, Pak-EPA on 1st August, 2007. ii. One day workshop, “Training Workshop for “Heads of Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs)” Organized by NBC, Pak-EPA Feb 04, 2008. iii. One day seminar on “Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) – Applications and Implications” Organized by NBC, Pak-EPA on May 13, 2008. iv. One day training workshop, “Role of Biosafety Officers for the Implementation of Pakistan Biosafety Rules, 2005” Organized by NBC, Pak-EPA on June 23, 2008. v. Invited Lecture/ Seminar Series “Biodiversity Conservation: Biosafety Perspective” Dept. of Environmental Sciences in collaboration with Dept. of Zoology/Biology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi on May 27, 2010. vi. One day Workshop, “Environmental Safety and Stewardship of Biotech Products” organized by NBC in collaboration with M/s Pioneer Pakistan Seed Ltd. on April 4, 2011. vii. One day seminar, “GM Cotton: Food and Feed safety Prospectives” by M/s Pioneer Pakistan Seed Ltd. and NBC on April 5, 2011. viii. An Invited Lecture on “Status of Implementation of Biosafety Regulations in Pakistan” in the “Workshop on Implementation of Biosafety Protocols” Centre of Agriculture Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad on May 14, 2011. ix. One day International Workshop, “Global Status, Impact and Future Prospects of Biotech Crops” organized by NBC in collaboration with M/s Monsanto Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, Lahore on January 10, 2012 x. An Invited Lecture titled “Genetically Modified Products and their Regulation in Pakistan” Directorate of Health, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad on September 17, 2012. xi. An Invited Lecture titled “Biosafety Laws and their Implementation” In the 121th Extra Ordinary General Body Meeting of Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP), Lahore on November 13, 2012. xii. An Invited Lecture titled “Responsibilities and Functions of Institutional Biosafety Committee under Pakistan Biosafety Rules 2005” at Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quad-i-Azam University, Islamabad on March 28, 2013. xiii. “Capacity Building and Training Presentations on Trait Purity and GM Testing for TAC members and National Biosafety Centre officers” organized by NBC in collaboration with M/s Monsanto Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, Lahore on April 10, 2013. xiv. “Hazardous Impacts of Pesticides in Environment and their Possible Alternatives” organized by TheNetwork for Consumer Protection at National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad on 10th October, 2013.

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Pakistan has established bilateral /multilateral arangements with Korea, Philipines and USA for capacity building activities. The executed activites are listed bellow: i. Three (03) Korean Experts in the Field of Biotechnology, Biotechnology Information System, and Legal Expert in the field of Biosafety were dispatched to NBC/Pak-EPA on 10th of July, 2007 for the period of one month. ii. “Study Visit of Pakistani Government Officials on Crop Biotechnology” at Manila, Philippines (Aug 22-28, 2010). iii. Capacity Building on job training was offered to Pakistan by USDA and and Center for Environmental Risk Assessment (CERA) at Washington, USA. Two officers of National Biosafety Centre received this training in September, 2013. These were one time activities and further capacity building and cooperation and colaborations are required for the effective implementation of the obligations of CPB under CBD. Therefore, further guidance and help is required form the CPB Secretrait for securing bilaterial and multilateral cooperations.

The Guideance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms developed through the "Open-ended Online Forum" and the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) is used as guiding document for the risk assessment of LMOs and their Products.

The Guideance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms developed through the "Open-ended Online Forum" and the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) is used as guiding document for the risk assessment of LMOs and their Products. This guiding document provides common approcah for risk assessment of LMOs and their products

Transgenic Cotton and Corn along with other GM crops had been in the research & development stages and evaluation for laboratory research & development and field testing is under process. Pakistan had commercialized eight Bt cotton varieities and one cotton hybrid. Risk assessment of LMOs and their Products is conducted as per the self developed guidelines based on the Guideance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms developed through the "Open-ended Online Forum" and the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG).

Pakistan is following the self developed guidelines for the purpose of ensuring the safe handling, transport, and packaging of LMOs and their products. These guidance are part of National Biosafety Guidelines 2005 for the above mentioned activities of LMOs and their products.

The socio-economic considerations are part of the evaluation process and these consideration are taken into account for the decision making process for activities of LMOs and their products in the country.

The published materials regarding socio-economic considerations are used for elaborating national actions during the evaluation process of the applications for activities related to LMOs and their products by Technical Advisory Committee and National Biosafety Committee also gives due weightage to it while considering the case for approval to carry out activities related to LMOs and their products in the country. "BEST PRACTICES FOR ASSESSING THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TRANSGENIC CROP VARIETIES ON SMALL-SCALE FARMERS" ,International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, USA. It is requested that any training material developed by the Secretariat or any country may be shared and if possible the trainings may be arranged for the decsion makers and the evaluators for socio-economic considerations of CPB.

Pakistan has no capacity to take appropriate measures in the case of unintentional release of LMOS into the environment and there is dire need to enhance the capacity and help in devising mechanisms and measures to control and regulate unintentional release of LMOs and their products in the country.

There are biotechnolgy laboratories available which are being used for the indentification of LMOs by through gene and gene products. but no specific biosafety laboratoy is available and four biotechnology laboratories of different institutions had been desiganated to carry out identifaction and determination of concentration (Levels) of gene and gene products in different part of plants and other GM materials. Therefor, financial and technical help is required for the establishment of a state of the art laboratory for conducting the monitoring or managing LMOs and that laboratory would also be a training facility for the other institutions and organizations involved in biotechnology and biosafety research and development activities.

The Guideance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms developed through the "Open-ended Online Forum" and the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) is being shared with the members of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), Field Trials Monitoring & Evaluation Committees and commercialization Committees for of GM Cotton and GM corn to evaluate its relevance and usage as guiding document for the risk assessment of LMOs and their Products. Therefore, finances and training materials are required for specific trainings of the members of all the above mentioned committees for effective and efficient evaluation of the risk assessments and risk management of LMOs and their products.

The customs officers had not been trained and they could only be trained to read and understand the information on the labels of the imported items of LMOs and/or the items containing LMOs producs. Therefore, it is requested that training materials developed by the CPB Secretariat or any other country be shared and funding may kindly be provided for the trainings of custom officers for the identification of LMOs and their products imported in the country or exported from Pakistan.

Some of the academic institutions may have conducted any such trainings for the laboratory personnels but that specific information is not available with the National Biosafety Centre. The specific training are required and CPB Secretariat is requested to provide funding and training materials for the training of the laboratory personnels for identification, detection of LMOs and their products.

The four desiganated institutional biotechnolgy laboratories have adequate facilties and experties for the detection of the LMOs and their products. But, the reliability is question mark as these institutions are also the applicant for the research, developement and commercial release of GM producs in the country. Therefore, it is requested that financial and technical support may be provided for the establishment of National Biosafety Laboratories to address the reliability concern and also to provide training facilities to the organizatios and institutes in the field of detection and biosafety studies of LMOs and their products.

There are no certified laboratories for the detection of LMOs and their products in the country. The National Biosafety Committee had desigated four institutional biotechnology laboratories to carryout identifaction, detection and determination of concentration (Level) of gene and gene products from different part of plants and other GM materials provided for qualitative and quantitative analysis. It is required that a biosafety laboratories facility may kindly be funded and training provided to the personnel of the laboratories for the detection and determination of the LMOs and their products and also to train the other laboratories personnelsin the fields of identification and determination of LMOs and their products.

No certified laboratory for the dection of LMOs and their products exists. Only the four designated institutional biotechnology laboratories for the qualitative and quantitative determination of gene and gene products are operational. There is a dire need for the National Biosafety Laboratories to be established for detections, determinations and trainings to labratories personnels to conduct the identification and quantification of LMOs and their products.

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In the Pakistan Biosafety Rules 2005 and National Biosafety Guidelines 2005, the damage to the biodiversity are included but the decision makers, evaluators and monitors of LMOs and their products had not any specific training even to identify the possible/ potential damages to the biodiversity so administrative response measures for damage to biodiversity form LMOs and their products could not be developed. It is requesed that the capacity of the decision makers, evalucators and monitors may kindly be developed through providing training materials and fainances to conduct such trainings.

National Biosafety Centre had organized a number of awareness activities for the general Public about the LMOs and their products. The following mass awareness of LMOs and their products measures were taken; i. Public notices were released in the leading Newspapers of the country for information regarding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are subject to Pakistan Biosafety Rules, 2005. ii. A brochure on “Biosafety & Genetically Modified Organisms” is prepared, approved by competent authority,published and widely distributed. iii. An article “GMOs and Role of National Biosafety Centre” The Diplomatic Insight (2011) 4(6) page # 8 iv. Participate as “Environmental Expert” and delivered talks on Biosafety, LMOs and other environmental issues and their impacts in “Mahool Zaindgi Hai” and other programs on different channels of Radio of Pakistan. v. Participated in a Rohi Television Channel programme to highlight "The GM crops (Bt cotton) and related Biosafety issues". National Biosafety Centre is intrested to develop and publish handbills, brochures and hang ons and posters to educate and inform the public about LMOs and their products. But technical and financial constrians are not allowing to execute such activities. Therefore, it is requested kindly to provide technical and financial support to carry out such activities. The civil society organizations are part of the decision making process and their involvment will be further increased.

The invited lectures were delivered to different stakeholders and general public on biosafety of LMOs and their products and other issues and concern of biosafety of LMOs and their products to the biodiversity and environment.

The universities and other acdemic institutions of the country are offering biosafety related courses in their biotechnology degree curriculums. For example Quaid-i-Azam University, Islambad, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, National Institute of Biology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad etc.

Pakistan had not developed any such biosafety training materials and/or online modules. Therefore, the help of the CPB Secretariat is required to develop biosafety training materials and modules and to made them online available.

Six national workshop and seminars had been organized in the last two years for the information sharing, awareness and capacity building of the stakeholsders, students and general public in the country. No international activities could be executed due to lack of funds and cooperation form international donors/organizations. The details are as followes: i. One day International Workshop, “Global Status, Impact and Future Prospects of Biotech Crops” organized by NBC in collaboration with M/s Monsanto Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, Lahore on January 10, 2012. ii. An Invited Lecture titled “Genetically Modified Products and their Regulation in Pakistan” Directorate of Health, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad on September 17, 2012. iii. An Invited Lecture titled “Biosafety Laws and their Implementation” In the 121th Extra Ordinary General Body Meeting of Farmers Associates Pakistan (FAP), Lahore on November 13, 2012. iv. An Invited Lecture titled “Responsibilities and Functions of Institutional Biosafety Committee under Pakistan Biosafety Rules 2005” at Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quad-i-Azam University, Islamabad on March 28, 2013. v. “Capacity Building and Training Presentations on Trait Purity and GM Testing for TAC members and National Biosafety Centre officers” organized by NBC in collaboration with M/s Monsanto Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, Lahore on April 10, 2013. vi. “Hazardous Impacts of Pesticides in Environment and their Possible Alternatives” organized by TheNetwork for Consumer Protection at National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad on 10th October, 2013.

No biosafety related publication was made available in the country in the last year. The support is requested to develop and publish such materials and made available to the public and stakeholders on the biosafety related issues and concerns.

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