KARACHI, May 6: Speakers at a seminar on eye donation stressed the need for dispelling misconceptions attached to it, and called for holding dialogues and discussions with religious scholars for the purpose.

The seminar titled “Promoting eye donation trend in Pakistan” was organised by the Mass Communication department (Evening Programme) of the University of Karachi at it’s auditorium.

The speakers said that religious leaders’ cooperation for the cause would greatly help promote campaigns for eye donation in the country.

They observed that the campaigns aimed at motivating people to donate their eyes were not producing the desired results because people with less awareness regard the act of donating the eye a sin. “A number of people had pledged to donate their eyes and also signed a will for the purpose but the donation did not materialise mainly because of the misconception among their family,” they observed.

Medical superintendent of the Spencer’s Eye Hospital Dr Mashood-uz-Zafar Farooq told the seminar that 1.78 per cent of the country’s total population was a victim of blindness.

He said most of the cases pertained to cataract and could be cured.

Dr Haroon Rasheed, who is associated with Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust (LRBT), stressed the need for creating eye grafting culture in Pakistan.

Highlighting the services offered by the Trust, he said that treatment of all sorts of eye diseases, including cornea transplantation, was being carried out free of cost at the organisation’s hospitals.

Dr Asad Jaffery of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital said that religious scholars must come forward to remove the misconception that organ donation, be it an eye or a kidney, was a great sin. “It is the same misconception that prevents many people in our country from donating their organs,” he said, adding that discussions and interaction involving ulema and scholars could help create awareness of the issue and promote the noble cause of restoring vision to the patients of blindness.

In his keynote address, former caretaker minister Shujaat Ali Baig stressed the need for motivating people, saying that there could be no other better service to mankind than to restore the eyesight of a blind man.

Others who spoke at the seminar included Dean of the Faculty of Management Sciences Dr Abu Zar Wajidi, Vice-Chancellor of the Newport University Dr Huma Bukhari and Haseeb Khan.

Dean of the Faculty of Arts Dr Shamsuddin presented the welcome address.