ISLAMABAD: Minister for Housing and Works Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada on Monday emphasised the need for legislation, awareness, mandatory premarital lab tests and modern research to combat thalassaemia in Pakistan.

During his visit to the Thalassaemia Centre of Sundas Foundation in F-9 Park, he inaugurated an activity room established for thalassaemia children and the electric cart donated by Allied Bank to facilitate the transportation of children from the outer gate.

Addressing the ceremony, he said the foundation, being a pioneer non-profit organisation of its nature, was providing free-of-cost blood transfusion services to thousands of children countrywide.

He also remembered the humanitarian work of the founding chairman Muneer Ahmed Qureshi alias Munnu Bhai who demonstrated profound involvement in the treatment of patients suffering from thalassaemia.

The minister distributed gifts among the children.

Sundas Foundation Islamabad Director Air Vice Marshal Aftab Hussain said the foundation had been working for the last 26 years and expanded its services to nine major cities in Pakistan with 12 established centres.

The organisation is transfusing 30,000 blood bags every year and supplying 250-300 units of healthy and screened blood and blood products daily, he added.

He said the centre in Islamabad since its inception six years ago had benefited 52,243 patients. The centre provides free-of-cost blood transfusion services, medicines, testing, and investigation facilities.

He said that to provide a holistic environment an activity room for religious, academic, and extracurricular activities for the thalassaemic children had been established. This is the first thalassaemic centre in the world to have this facility.

He counted escalating inflation and varying blood donation trends in society as the major challenges for the organisation.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024