ISLAMABAD: The father of a 15-year-old girl from the Gaza Strip who suffers from a rare bone and muscle disorder has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan for help in the treatment of his daughter but said this week he had received no response from Pakistan’s central government so far.
Walaa Assad has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a congenital disease that causes multiple joint contractures. Last month, the girl’s aunt took to Twitter with an appeal from her father:
Years of violence and conflict have systematically destroyed the health infrastructure of Palestine. In Gaza, with a dense and poor population of two million, there is a severe shortage of medicines and a meagre medical system.
On May 21, a cease-fire was announced between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of Israeli aerial bombardment that killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials have said 232 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian territory between May 10 until the truce, worsening Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation, damaging thousands of homes and disabling critical infrastructure. Rocket attacks fired by Hamas — which controls Gaza — killed 12 people in Israel.
“Pakistan is a Muslim country and they love Palestinians,” Walaa’s father Youssef Hassan Assad told Arab News in a video conference on Friday. “Because the treatment is available in Pakistan, so I am requesting Prime Minister Imran Khan to help me in sponsoring her treatment in Pakistan.”
However, he added that the federal government of Pakistan had not responded to his appeal thus far.
“There is a hospital in Pakistan [Jinnah Hospital Karachi in Sindh province] which is ready to do her operations when they receive the documents of her case. They said they will be able to do the treatment but it’s costly,” he added, saying he wished for the Pakistani PM to sponsor her treatment and travel to Pakistan.
Assad has four other children, he said, was unemployed and lived on a government stipend in Gaza.
Explaining Walaa’s condition, the father said she was unable to move her hands and hold objects.
“She has issues in her muscles, legs and is unable to move,” Assad said. “Whenever she needs to stand, she needs someone to help her.”
The girl has had one operation so far but further treatment was not possible in Gaza, Assad added.
“No one from Israel and any other country has supported us or given any sort of funding,” he said.
A spokesman for the Sindh government, Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, had responded to Walaa’s aunt’s appeal on Twitter, saying the provincial government would be happy assist.
Siddiqui told Arab News on Friday the government was in the process of arranging a meeting between Pakistani doctors and Walaa’s father and her doctors in Gaza.
“As the girl’s father cannot speak any other language than Arabic, we are in the process of arranging a Skype session along with a translator between Jinnah Hospital Karachi’s doctors and the girl’s father along with her medical team in Gaza to know the exact situation and access the possibilities,” Siddiqui said. “I have spoken to doctors at Jinnah Hospital. Treatment is possible but they will need more details about the girl.”
