LAHORE, Feb 10: The Al-Khidmat Foundation will establish five hospitals within a year to provide free medical treatment to poor patients.

One hospital each will be set up in Multan, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Hyderabad, foundation’s chairman MNA Liaquat Baloch and secretary MPA Ehsanullah Waqas said on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference here, they said a relief package for heart surgery at Surraiya Azeem Heart Hospital would also be launched soon. Work was also under way to establish a dialysis centres for free treatment of poor kidney patients.

The foundation, a subsidiary of the Jamaat-i-Islami, had already vaccinated 100,000 people against Hepatitis B at half rates in a countrywide campaign. It was planning to vaccinate one million people in the next year, they said.

It was also launching the Neelam Valley Services Project to make Kashmiri refugees and heirs of Mujahideen self-reliant, they said.

The foundation had collected Rs6 million donations and spent the same on various educational, health and other welfare projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan last year.

They said that so far 57 truck loads of essentials had been distributed among Afghan refugees staying in Jallozai, Shamsatu, Nasser Bagh, Kotki, Badzai, Budbeer, Bara and Quetta areas.

The UK IM Relief, the Muslim Aid UK, the ICNA America, the Muslim Association Japan, the Mercy International Japan, the Islamic Trust and some NGOs of Arab countries were cooperating with the foundation in running schools, children clinics, maternity homes, dispensaries, construction of toilets and provision of potable water in Afghan refugee camps.

They said that these NGOs used to collect hospital equipment discarded by health centres after purchasing latest ones there and send the same to Muslim states as demanded by the local welfare organizations.

The Al-Khidmat also had contacts with them and would import free of cost this equipment for its proposed hospitals.

Local philanthropists were also donating land, buildings and cash for various welfare projects. Like every year, 4,000 hides collection centres were also being set up across the country on Eidul Azha to generate local resources too, they said.