Mohammad Daud Khan
Academy of Ophthalmology (AAAO), the American
Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), SAARC
Academy of ophthalmology (SAO) and International
Council of Ophthalmology (ICO)2,3.
In 1979, the 7th APAO meeting was held in
Karachi, Pakistan. The then President of Pakistan
General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq was invited as chief
guest on this occasion. He took keen interest in the
affairs of vision and its protection.
Vision 2020: WHO/IAPB, the right to sight initiative.
For implementation we followed the WHO six
building blocks and the V.2020 threecore strategies;
Disease control, appropriate Human resource
development (HRD) and Infrastructure and appropriate
technology development6.
The program was developed incrementally in close
collaboration of WHO and Sight Savers International
(SSI). The concept was first tested in an artificial
district in KPK, then in one real district (District-
Bannu7) and finally in ten districts.8After thorough
evaluation at each stage, it was finally rolled over to
the entire country through two consecutive five years
national eye health development programs.CBM, Fred
Hollows Foundation and many other small
organizations joined SSI, to support the project.
Soon after this meeting in 1980, WHO country
office invited Professor Hugh Taylor as WHO short-
term consultant to report on the current status of eye
health in Pakistan. The major findings of the report
were;
1. Prevalence of blindness in the country is over 2%.
2. There are only 80 ophthalmologists to take care of
a population of 100 million.
The total cost incurred on developing 100 districts
along with four provincial eye care HRD centers and
the Pakistan institute of community ophthalmology
(PICO) at Peshawar amounted to 13 Million USDs.
The entire developmental cost was borne by the
consortium of INDGOs6.
3. 45 out of 64 districts are without ophthalmologist.
4. There is no concept of eye care team.
5. There is gross mismatch in human resource.4
The report proved to be wakeup call for OSP and
the entire country. OSP used the report as a major tool
for Advocacy. The following steps were taken with the
help of government of Pakistan, WHO and the
International Non government Developmental
Organizations (INDGOs).
Large number of centers of excellence for Human
Resource Development and sophisticated eye care
interventions were opened in government and non-
government sectors across the country. College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP),
International Council of ophthalmology (ICO),
London School of tropical medicine and hygiene and
International Joint Commission of Allied Health in
Ophthalmology (IJCAPO), played a key role in
National committee for prevention of blindness
(PBL) was notified in the late nineties.
Prof. Saleh Memon, a highly talented, honest and
upright ophthalmologist who was already working
as a national coordinator since 1987/88 was
appointed as the 1st chairman of the committee.
training,
evaluation
and
certification
of
ophthalmologists, community ophthalmologists and
ophthalmic allied health personnel including
ophthalmic nurses.
The 2nd national blindness prevalence survey was
undertaken in collaboration with London School of
Tropical medicine and Hygiene and the INGDOs
consortium in the years 2003 – 20049. The following
were the salient features of the results of the 2nd
survey.
He succeeded in undertaking the monumental task
of the 1stnational blindness prevalence survey in1987-
88. The survey reconfirmed the findings of the WHO
report, 1980.5In the early nineties, efforts were made
to create an OSP Foundation to promote ophthalmic
Research and Development and Ophthalmic medical
education for all cadres and for all levels.
The prevalence of overall blindness dropped from
1.78% to 0.9%.
Many senior Ophthalmologists and some members
of the pharmaceutical industry played a key role in the
financial support of this foundation.
The number of ophthalmologists shot up from 80
in 1980 to > 2000 in 2004.
The number of cataract surgeries shot up from
50,000 in 1980 to 500,000 in 2004.
In 1994 Prof. M. D. Khan was appointed as the
new chairman of Pakistan national PBL committee.
District based national comprehensive eye care
program was developed in close collaboration of
The cataract surgical rate (CSR) shot up from
1115/M in 1980 to 4000/M in 2004.
198
Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology, 2020, Vol. 36 (3): 197-204