LONDON: As over eight million Pakistanis were suffering from preventable vision loss, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday expressed his government’s clear commitment to eliminate preventable blindness from the country.

He made this commitment during a meeting with senior officials of Peek Vision and CBM here on the sidelines of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2018).

Peek Vision was a world leader in using smartphone technology and training healthcare workforces in developing countries to eliminate preventable blindness and poor vision, while CBM was an international non-governmental development organisation working in the field of disability globally for over 100 years with a major focus on eye care.

During the meeting with Prime Minister Abbasi, Peek Vision was represented by Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Dr Andrew Bastawrous while CBM was represented by their Director of Inclusive Eye Health Dr Babar Qureshi.

The discussion centred around a major challenge for Pakistan, that of eliminating preventable blindness. It is estimated that there are more than eight million citizens of Pakistan that are suffering from preventable visual loss.

Peek Vision with CBM were prepared to deploy their partnership to deliver the most advanced solutions for the identification, diagnosis and treatment management for Pakistani citizens using the country’s existing health infrastructure and staff.

Prime Minister Abbasi invited Peek Vision to Pakistan and committed the full support of the Government for a national program in that regard.

Peek Vision and CBM agreed to follow up and work with the Government to reach this noble goal.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Ali Jehangir Siddiqui and Pakistani High Commissioner to United Kingdom Syed Ibne Abbas were also present during the meeting.