President refuses to exit airport with protocolBy Our Correspondent

LAHORE: President Arif Alvi, after reaching the Lahore airport on Friday, refused to come out of the airport along with a long convoy of vehicles sent for his protocol.

Refusing to take the protocol, the president said he would wait for the vehicles to disperse before exiting the airport. The president, in a tweet later, said a convoy of 32 vehicles was present outside the airport to escort him but he asked the officials to send them back.

Later, the president reached the venue where he had to address a conference with only five cars. Addressing the conference organized by the Pakistan Psychiatrists Society here, he stressed the need for treating patients combating psychological issues on modern lines. He said the negative perceptions attributed to the patients combating mental diseases needed to be discouraged as remedies existed for such problems. He said psychological disorders gave rise to phobias in the human mind and along with doctors and psychiatrists, the relatives of the patients and the society played a main role in the recovery of the patients. He said according to an estimate, around 20 million people in Pakistan were combating psychological issues, which was a big number.