In Pakistan, over 300,000 people suffer from corneal blindness, yet Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital performs only about 800 corneal transplants annually, revealing a significant gap in donor tissue availability. Currently, the country relies on imported corneas due to limited local donations and a lack of a comprehensive eye-banking system.

Al-Shifa Trust President Maj Gen (Retd) Rehmat Khan emphasized that a single donor can restore sight to two individuals and urged people to pledge their eyes for donation after death. By comparison, while 185,000 corneal transplants are conducted each year globally, Pakistan performs only approximately 1,500.

International partnerships, like that with US-based Eversight since 2017, have helped, but a coordinated national system for corneal donation is still lacking. Dr. Omar Farooq from Al-Shifa Eye Bank noted the broader impacts of untreated corneal blindness, affecting both education and employment. A call for increased public awareness and better institutional arrangements for cornea retrieval and distribution is essential to reduce reliance on imports.