More UAE residents will soon be able to get free and discounted medical treatment as Dh45 million expansion work on Pakistan Association Dubai (PAD) and Pakistan Medical Centre (PMC) will begin in the near future.
The expansion will increase PMC capacity by threefold, offering heavily discounted and free medical services to over 15,000 people.
“Phase 2 of PAD and PMC expansion will cost Dh45 million. It is one of the largest expansions of PAD’s history, expanding PMC space and services by threefold, along with indoor sports and basement parking. It is a two-year project, and work will start soon. It will rank us as the largest community centre of overseas Pakistanis,” said Dr Faisal Ikram, president of the Pakistan Association Dubai.
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“We have so far served 140,000 people of over 100 nationalities since we opened the doors in October 2020. On average, we receive over 4,500- 5,000 people a month, reaching full capacity. We are adding a new bloc with 89,000 sqft space,” Dr Faisal told Khaleej Times in an interview on Sunday on the occasion of Pakistan’s 78th Independence Day celebrations at Dubai Expo City.
The new block will include advanced diagnostics and radiology, a dialysis unit, enhanced physiotherapy and expansion of existing specialised services.
In addition to Pakistani nationals, many UAE expat nationals from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, African countries, as well as UAE citizens, seek medical treatment at PMC for free or at discounted rates.
In 2017, Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, laid the foundation stone of the project. With construction of the building beginning in 2018, the medical centre was finally completed and opened to the public in October 2020.
Commenting on the contribution of PMC, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s envoy to the UAE, praised the PMC initiative and termed it “the most affordable medical treatment available to people in the UAE.”
“This is a mind-blowing job by the Pakistan Association Dubai and Dr Faisal Ikram. In addition to people who get free treatment, even those who can afford it also pay a nominal amount. People can get almost an entire checkup for just Dh100, irrespective of which country or religion they belong to, because humanity is the biggest and most important thing,” the ambassador said on Sunday.
Highlighting contributions of the Pakistani community to Pakistan, Tirmizi noted that over 1.7 million Pakistanis in the UAE remitted a record $7.9 billion (Dh29 billion) in the past year from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
“If we compare it to the previous year’s $6.5 billion remittances, this is a massive increase of over 20 per cent. I expect that remittances will continue to increase in the coming year,” the ambassador said.
