LAHORE, March 29: A two-day conference on disaster management will begin at the Aiwan-i-Iqbal here from Friday, March 31, officials of the Pakistan Society of Surgeons said on Wednesday.

“Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi is likely to inaugurate the moot, also to be attended by experts from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Society president Dr Abdul Majeed Chaudhry told journalists at a press conference. Lahore chapter president Dr Mahmood Shaukat, secretary-general Dr Ibrar Ashraf Ali and Prof Dr Khalid Masood Gondal were also present.

Dr Chaudhry said the main objective to hold the conference was to formulate a comprehensive plan of action to effectively deal with any disaster in the future.

He said lack of coordination among volunteers, private and public sector organisations and government departments resulted in wastage of resources during the relief operation in the quake-hit areas of the country.

All the organisations and departments, besides a number of people involved in the post-quake operation, were consulted and their opinion was incorporated in the draft of a master plan which would be presented at the conference for debate, he added.

Experts from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would share their experiences of dealing with calamities like Tsunami with the physicians, surgeons, para-medical staff, rescue workers, fire-fighters, representatives of the relevant departments and other participants of the moot.

“We plan to develop a joint team of experts and trained people in Saarc region so that they could help one another instead of looking towards Europe, the US and Canada,” he said.