KARACHI, Nov 13: The Pakistan Medical Association on Tuesday appealed to the people to donate generously towards its ongoing campaign to help a large number of displaced Afghans, who are victim of hunger, lethal and contagious diseases and a host of other problems.

By extending help of medicines, blankets and quilts and financial assistance the misery faced by a large number of Afghan women, children, elders and others would be mitigated to a considerable extent as owing to the enormity of the task, their plight could not be solaced by foreign agencies working in Pakistan, said Dr Sher Shah Syed, secretary-general of the PMA, at a press conference in the PMA House on Tuesday.

Explaining the prevailing situation, he said the country could ill-afford another large-scale influx of refugees from Afghanistan as already it had been hosting two million such people for long which was beyond its financial capacity.

President Pervez Musharraf in view of the critical situation and plight of the poverty-stricken refugees had established a committee comprising the PMA, Edhi Foundation and Hilal-i-Ahmar representatives which had been assigned the task to set up relief camps inside Afghanistan, he added.

He disclosed that the PMA would establish two hospitals inside the war-ravaged country each comprising 50 beds, where PMA volunteers would serve the ailing humanity.

According to him, the PMA president, Prof Yasmin Rashid, has already reached Afghanistan where she was supervising the construction of a hospital in the Sarshahi city.

He said every kind of help would be welcomed by the PMA as many of its branches were busy collecting donations.

He also appealed to pharmaceutical companies to respond to the PMA call by extending all necessary medicines for helping the injured and ailing Afghan people.—PPI