In a goodwill gesture, Pakistan offers free cancer treatment to Afghan woman

PESHAWAR: As a gesture of goodwill, Pakistan has allowed free cancer treatment for an Afghan woman, who will be crossing the Torkham crossing point and driven to a designated Pakistani hospital.

According to senior Foreign Office officials, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Kabul Zahid Nasrullah Khan had filed a request for special assistance to an Afghan woman named Noorziya who had earlier been diagnosed with cancer.

“(Nasrullah) Khan requested and … Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa agreed to extend free medical treatment to (the) Afghan female patient who … will be travelling to Pakistan tomorrow (on Monday),” the official said on condition of anonymity since he was not entitled to speak to the media.
“She (Noorziya) along with (her) three attendants (Bibi Rahat, Qudratullah Afghan and Abdul Salam Rasooli) will cross the Torkham border crossing point on Monday,” an official document sent from the Foreign Office in Islamabad to its Peshawar office stated.

According to the document, an ambulance would transport these individuals to a “designated hospital in Pakistan”.

“It has been desired that the deputy chief of protocol Peshawar to receive (Noorziya) at Torkham where necessary coordination should be done with relevant authorities,” the document stated.

According to officials of the Afghan consulate in the provincial capital, Noorziya will be treated for cancer at the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital and Research Centre free of cost.

“Noorziya will be brought to Pakistan on Monday (and) will be shifted to (the hospital),” Mastoora Stankzai, an Afghan diplomat stationed at Peshawar told The Express Tribune.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has already commended Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital’s charitable work and provided high-tech machines worth $6.2 million for its Peshawar unit to support free-of-cost treatment to cancer patients, including Afghan refugees.

“It is remarkable that so many citizens have contributed to this initiative. It is a philanthropic initiative and it really speaks volumes about the compassionate sentiment that prevails in Pakistan,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi commended the hospital’s services during his visit on September 9.

Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital has been offering free of cost services to more than 75 per cent of its patients.

In 2017, however, the facility offered free services to more than 90 per cent of patients, including Afghan nationals, most of them living as refugees in Pakistan.

According to the hospital’s CEO Dr Faisal Sultan, the facility offered services to 3,400 Afghan refugees over the past 10 years and 680 were treated in 2017 alone, adding that nearly 1,500 patients per year were likely to benefit from the machinery donated by UNHCR.

Source: Express Tribune