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9 November 2025 / 19 Jamaadi al Ula 1447

The World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities - serving with simplicity and sincerity, enabling and facilitating all community endeavours

The World Federation is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations

Vision Statement

The World Federation exists to achieve the pleasure of Allah SWT by developing spiritual and vibrant communities serving humanity

Mission Statement

The World Federation enables its member institutions to promote the values and practices of the Islamic Shia Ithna Asheri Faith for the spiritual and material well being of humanity at large

MAB Visit to Karachi and Hyderabad

Introduction
This trip to Karachi, the first of its kind, was organised by the Medical Advisory Board (MAB) of the World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities, UK. The visiting team comprised of Dr Munir Datoo of London, Dr Husein Jiwa of Peterborough and Mr Gulamabbas Mohamed of Birmingham. The objectives of the trip were:

To promote the MAB’s activities amongst the Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri population in Pakistan
To generate more awareness of the activities of the World Federation
To perform a medical needs assessment within the Khoja community as best as possible given the tight timeframe of the visit

Current Facilities
Our community in Karachi is privileged to have various medical facilities available to them (e.g. Masumin Hospital, Pak Night Clinic, Al-Batul Health Centre, Hussaini Blood Bank, Bait-ul-Sukoon). The community needs to be congratulated on its latest project, which is the construction of a brand new 100-bed hospital. The hospital is scheduled to be ready for service in 2007.

It was wonderful and heartwarming to see that there are people in Karachi who, against all odds, genuinely care about the plight of those who are unfortunate. Great people run institutions such as Hussaini blood bank (even though their personal lives are under threat), Masumin Hospital, Pak Night Clinic, Bait-ul-Sukoon, Al-Batul Health Centre and The Ida Rieu school for the deaf and blind. These institutions are carrying out fantastic work which is delivering far reaching benefits to several underprivileged people who are suffering from poor health combined with great poverty and depravation.

Meeting
Many healthcare professionals, including Social Workers, Psychologists, Physicians, Psychiatrists, Hospital Doctors and other healthcare workers attended a brain storming session which was organised by the visiting team. This Medical Forum was held in Mehfil-e-Murtaza, where one main observation was that a lot of them did not realise what the others were doing in their respective fields. The gathering was a great success and it provided these people with a forum to exchange views and ideas and hopefully started up a network for these community professionals. There was a commitment given by the leaders of Mehfil-e-Murtaza to set up a medical sub-committee whose role would be to plan and co-ordinate improvements in healthcare facilities for the Khoja community for the future. If the ideas that came out of that meeting were anything to go by, great work can be accomplished by these people if their efforts are organised, co-ordinated and channelled properly. This day alone resulted in a very positive outcome of the trip for the MAB. Endless thanks were received from the attendees for organising the event because they felt they all gained something of value from it.

In Pictures

Meeting with several dignitaries of the various community organisations

Meeting with Khoja community leaders in Hyderabad,
Mr Muhsin Jaffer addressing the meeting

Zainabiya Blood Bank in Hyderabad – Dr Munir Datoo observing facilities

Brainstorming session at Mehfil-e-Murtaza,Karachi – Medical Forum

Meeting at Baitul Sukoon Hospital –Mr Gulamabbas Mohamed
gathering information

ConclusionDuring the visit by the medical team, it was agreed that the Khoja community in Karachi would commit to undertake the following actions:

It was decide that the three Jamaats – Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri (Pirhai) Jamaat, Mehfile-e-Murtaza and Hyderabad Jamaats will jointly form a medical sub-committee.

The medical sub-committee has been successfully formed. The members are as follows.

Members:

Mr Raza Kanani	Chairman
Dr Asif Raza Shao	Assistant to Chairman
Dr Sarfaraz Jaffri	Hussaini Blood Bank
Mr Ali Hussain Shariff	Pak Night Clinic
Mr Mohsin Dharsi	Committee Member of Pirhai jamaat
Dr Sajjad Hussain	Committee Member of Hyderabad Jamaat
Mr Mohammed Fazal	Joint Secretary Mehfil-e-Murtaza

Working with the medical sub-committee, a panel of doctors will be appointed to pursue cases which need further treatment.

The following programmes have been launched:
Full medical screening including blood test to screen for Thalassaemia, Hepatitis A, B and C and for HIV and chest x-ray.

Those patients found to have positive results to be provided with appropriate further investigations, treatment and follow up.
Participants with clear blood results to be encouraged to become regular blood donors.

This programme was launched on Saturday 28th August 2004 at Shaheed Hamid Ali Bhojani Hall, Khoja Jamaat Complex, Britto Road Karachi at a reception held in honour of the visiting President of The World Federation Alhaj Dr Ahmed Hassam.

Leaflets informing the Khoja community about the various medical screening programmes were distributed widely.

Leaflets distributed in our community in Karachi