Iftikhar Thakur has expressed his desire to build a hospital for children suffering from thalassemia in his native town Mian Channu.
According to reports, the veteran comedian has said that he wants to build a state-of-the-art facility that would provide free of cost treatment to children with thalassaemia. He said that work on the hospital, which would also provide liver transplant facility to the patients in need, would begin in January 2021.
Thakur said he decided to build the facility while doing charity work at a hospital in Multan. He shared that he felt that there was a lack of treatment facilities for children with thalassaemia in the country.
“When I worked on this subject, I came to know that there were mobile hospitals for such children [in some countries],” said Thakur.
The comedian further said that later during a show in the United Kingdom (UK), he appealed for donations for a mobile hospital, adding that responding to his appeal one of his fans donated funds for the facility that was working here. Thakur said over 25,000 children were registered as thalassaemia patients only in south Punjab.
Thakur also hailed late journalist, poet and playwright Munno Bhai for establishing the Sundas Foundation which works for children with thalassaemia.
Meanwhile, responding to a question, Thakur suggested that in order to bring improvement in the local commercial theatre, there should be proper script scrutiny committees to eliminate “vulgar content”.
To another question regarding the Artist Support Fund, Thakur suggested that the government should create job opportunities for artistes, instead of giving them Rs5,000 per month scholarships.
