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LAHORE, Nov 12: Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider has said that he has urged the health ministry and the World Health Organization to bring about a law to prevent thalassaemia.
He said legislation to force every person to undergo a thalassaemia test for diagnosis and consequent avoidance of marriage between two thalassaemia carriers would help drastically minimize the birth of thalassaemic major children.
Mr.Haider, who is also chairman of the Fatmid Foundation, said the thalassaemic major children suffered throughout their lives because they required blood transfusion and chelation therapy almost every day.
The interior minister was talking to reporters after inaugurating an ‘Ultra low temperature deep freezer’ at the Fatimid Foundation Centre here on Tuesday. The freezer was donated by Nazir Husain Sheikh, chairman of the Ali Barkat School (Trust), Bund Road, for the storage of plasma and other blood ingredients.
Mr Haider said that different countries, including Cyprus, the Maldives, Iran etc, had eliminated the deadly disease.
He said that he had got model legislations from these countries and working to draft a model legislation for normal procedure of finalizing and consequent approval by the parliament.
He claimed that there were around seven million thalassaemia carriers in the country. He said the marriage between two thalassaemic carriers should be avoided to save their prospective children from life-long agony. A simple thalassaemia test cost only around Rs300, he said.
Mr Haider said that some 10,600 thalassaemic children were currently registered with the Fatimid Foundation at its four centres in Lahore, Karachi, Multan and Peshawar and were receiving treatment free of cost. He said each blood transfusion per child cost around Rs1,225. He said the foundation had also installed a state-of-the-art blood testing machine at its Lahore and Karachi centres.
Out of around Rs80 million annual expenditure of the foundation, he claimed that 25 per cent budget was provided by the government and the zakat council. The remaining funds were generated through donations, he added.
POLITICAL DEADLOCK: Answering a question, the interior minister said the political deadlock would end through dialogue, flexibility in political parties’ stance and adoption of give-and-take policy.
He hoped that the deadlock would end in a few days. He said President Musharraf had met Qazi Husain Ahmad and he would also be meeting with other political leaders to resolve the deadlock.
“If the compromises will not be finalized outside the praliament, the National Assembly session should be called to invite political parties to prove their majority,” he said.
