Conjoined sisters wait for help

CHARSADDA: The orphaned twin sisters, who are conjoined at the head, are waiting for the government assistance to proceed for their surgery in the United Kingdom.

Their uncle Muhammad Idrees and grandfather Saadat Hussain told reporters that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had constituted a medical board which concluded that the surgery was not possible in Pakistan. They said the board had recommended that the surgery could be performed in the UK and would cost 1.1 million pounds. They said that the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London had informed the medical board that the hospital would bear half of the cost of surgery of sisters Safa and Marwa.

The girls' uncle and grandfather said that the government had not contacted their family yet about bearing the cost of the surgery. They said that they had also written a letter to the government of Saudi Arabia as they were told that such surgeries were possible in the kingdom.

However, they said Saudi Arabia had not responded to their request. They claimed that PTI leader Jehangir Tareen and Chief Minister Pervez Khattak too had not responded to their requests for assistance. They appealed the federal government and Nawaz Sharif to provide financial assistance to their family for the surgery of the girls in UK.