Pakistani doctors to perform 500 free eye surgeries in Kabul

Medical team reaches Afghanistan with medical equipment worth millions of rupees

KABUL:

A team of ophthalmologists from Pakistan are in Kabul to perform free eye surgeries and will perform around 500 procedures free of cost. 

The procedures include retina and oculoplastic surgeries, and will be done at the Noor Hospital – the national eye clinic in Kabul.

The head of the hospital, Dr Zahir Gul Zadran, while expressing his gratitude towards the foundation also noted that “these doctors have also brought medical equipment to this hospital for the treatment of patients, the value of which is about Rs2.4 million ($10 million)”.

Dr Zadran said this was the second time that the doctors have visited the hospital to treat Afghan patients and are expected to spend days treating patients in Kabul.

Earlier this year, the head of the World Health Organisation had termed the situation in the country as "dire".

In January, Pakistan had sent a medical team to Afghanistan in order to assist the process of renovation of three hospitals as part of humanitarian assistance to the war-stricken country which has been followed by various other efforts to provide aid to the country.

After a devastating earthquake shook the country in June, Afghanistan's Taliban administration had called for a rolling back of sanctions and lifting a freeze on billions of dollars in central bank assets stashed in Western financial institutions.