LAHORE, April 3: The Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) will send its first mission of five doctors to Iraq in a couple of days.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, PIMA relief committee director Dr Tanvirul Hasan and Lahore PIMA president Dr Mian Afzal said the five doctors, two each from Karachi and Sargodha and one from Multan, would carry around 250 kilograms of medicines and surgical items for the Iraqi people.

Dr Hasan said the PIMA had also offered its service to the Pakistan government. He claimed that some 300 doctors in the country had volunteered their services for Iraq.

He said the association had also applied to the Iran embassy to allow its representatives to use its territory to reach Iraq. “If we get permission, then a good number of doctors along with truckloads of relief goods, including dry milk and tinned food, would be taken to Iraq,” he added.

As the invasion of Iraq by the US led coalition forces has entered its third week, he said, reports were that medical support and supplies were diminishing and depleting quickly.

He said there was a shortage of life saving drugs and dry milk for children.

The doctors from the Islamic Medical Association had already set up camps in Al-Ruwashed and Al-Karama in Jordan. The PIMA was in touch with them and medical associations in Iran, where relief items could be dispatched by road.