PEBC marks 25,000 donations of corneas from Sri Lanka

KARACHI: The Pakistan Eye Bank Society (PEBC) has celebrated 25,000 donations of corneas to Pakistan from Sri Lanka at a ceremony held at a local hotel, here on Saturday. Addressing the ceremony, Consul General of Sri Lanka, Jagath Abeywarna, said today they are celebrating the 75th anniversary of Pakistan-Sri Lankan relations. He said that Pakistan and Sri Lanka also have very good economic relations. He mentioned that corneas worth more than US 6 billion dollars have been given to Pakistan, adding the PEBS has played a very important role in this regard. President PEBS Qazi Sajid said Sri Lanka has given 25,000 corneas to Pakistan free-of-cost within 60 years. “We started in the year 1960 and in 1968 we got a glimmer of hope. I have been doing this for 54 years. In the beginning, I used to get only 3 to 4 eyes in a month. We did 160 corneal transplants a week in 1975,” he said. And so far, he added that they have received 25,000 corneas from Sri Lanka. Dignitaries belonging to different segments of society also attended the event. Copyright Business Recorder, 2023