KARACHI: The 13th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) ENT Congress opened on Friday with health experts highlighting the need for sharing knowledge, expertise and making guidelines for the management of common disease patterns in the region.

The country hosted the biennial event after a gap of 13 years as the Society of Otorhinolaryngologists of Pakistan had organised the 8th Saarc conference in Karachi in 2011. The previous conference was hosted by Nepal in 2022.

Dedicated to the theme ‘Harmonising oral, head and neck expertise amongst SAARC countries’, the three-day conference is being held at a local hotel and attended by experts from all Saarc countries including India, as well as Turkiye, the UK, the US and Canada.

The event’s formal opening on Friday followed extensive pre-workshops, covering a wide subjects ranging from basic hands-on cadaveric temporal bone dissection, audiology and speech rehabilitation and hands-on cadaveric head and neck surgery, with master trainers from different countries including India, Sri Lanka, the US, Canada and the UK.

Thirteenth edition of biennial Saarc ENT Congress begins

According to the organisers, these workshops will continue for the next two days, providing great learning opportunities to young local doctors, who otherwise go abroad for improving their surgical dexterity.

‘Platform can serve humanity in region’

In his welcome address, Prof Iqbal A. Muhammad Khyani, chairman of the organising committee, spoke about how the platform could help serve humanity in the region.

“The aim is sharing knowledge not just among the specialists from this region but also from world-class renowned ENT surgeons. It is high time that we coordinate and harmonise the expertise of ORL head and neck related diseases in the member countries,” he said.

It’s imperative to have a platform to share experiences and setting up guidelines for common disease patterns in the region to serve the humanity in a vibrant manner, he added.

Expressing gratitude to her Pakistani counterparts, Saarc Otolaryngologists Association president Prof Narmaya Thapa hoped that the congress would help improve people-to-people contact and expert community relations among the member countries of Saarc and beyond.

Tracing the association’s history, Dr Thapa recalled how the Saarc Otolaryngologists Association was established by late Prof M. Alauddin.

“The first Saarc ENT congress was held in Dhaka in 1998. Since then, this congress is held every two years with the exception being during the Covid pandemic. It has regained its routine activities post pandemic,” she said.

Senior surgeon Prof Mohibullah Khan, the chief guest, thanked the foreign delegates, especially those from India, for attending the event and sharing their expertise and providing hands-on training to young doctors.

In their remarks, Sindh Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Tariq Rafi, who headed the ENT, head and neck surgery department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, underscored the need for holding more such regional events.

He said such programmes helped reduce polarisation, regional tensions and bring people and nations closer.

Dr Sameer Quraishy, one of the organisers, spoke of the challenges faced in holding the congress, while appreciating the government and the private sector for the much-needed assistance.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2024