Islamabad : Shifa Trust will build a primary eye hospital in Haveli Lakha, Okara, with the intention of
providing high-quality eye care services to the residents as well as people who come from the
surrounding areas.
In addition to the residents of Haveli Lakha and Depalpur, the facility will also serve the
residents of Pakpatan, Sahiwal, and Bahawalnagar, which are neighbouring districts.
Briefing the media persons, the President of Al-Shifa Trust, Maj. Gen. (Retd) Rehmat Khan
said a doctor had donated two acres of land to the trust close to the city.
The donor will also bear the construction cost, and the trust will provide equipment and
expertise and will be responsible for managing the facility.
Rehmat Khan said this project would help the people of South Punjab, but the magnitude of
the problem demands a full-fledged eye hospital in Multan.
He said that Haveli Lakha Hospital will be operational by the end of this year and that basic
eye care hospitals are vital to eradicate blindness.
On this occasion, the project director, Brig. (retd.) Arshad Mahmood shared the details of
trust’s expansion plan and informed that the extension block in Chakwal Eye Hospital will
start functioning by next month.
He added that a local family donated Rs 150 million to complete the new block at Chakwal
Eye Hospital, which is highly commendable.
The trust is also constructing a hospital in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), for which the government
has allotted a piece of prime land near Aga Khan Hospital, accessible to people.
The hospital would be able to treat 150 OPD patients per day and conduct 50 surgeries daily,
he added.
The Rupani Foundation Pakistan is helping to construct the first state-of-the-art hospital in
the GB, costing around Rs 220 million. The foundation will bear half of its cost, while the
trust will arrange the remaining costs through donations.
He said we are also awaiting for a suitable piece of land from the provincial government to
construct a hospital in Quetta.
However, he added that we have already started serving the patients in Balochistan, and a
series of camps are being organized.
It may be mentioned that the Al-Shifa Trust provides quality eye care services to eighty
percent of patients free of cost.
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