Islamabad, Saturday:
The Pakistani government on Saturday started issuing the “disability card” to disabled people in a move to help them in availing facilities, an official said.
According to the official, the card will be provided in a one-window operation which will give a boost towards international standards for facilities.
The first phase of the scheme has been initiated by the provincial government of the southern province of Sindh.
Similar cards were given to 100 disabled people on an experimental basis at the Aga Khan Hospital in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday.
The government has also declared Karachi, a metropolitan with an approximately population of 18 million, a ” disabled-free” city.
According to the Federal Ministry for Social Welfare, there are only 6,789 disabled people in the country, of which 4,209 are men, 1,222 are women and 1,358 are children.
The socio-economic data about disabled people in Pakistan is very limited and many social activists challenge the figures given by government.
Approximately 2.4 percent of the Pakistani population, according to a survey, has some form of disability, lower than the WHO estimate of approximately 10 percent.
It was estimated that 66 percent of disabled people live in Pakistan’s rural areas, which are normally not counted in the government figures.
Out of Pakistan’s total disabled people, only 28 percent are literate; 14 percent work; and 70 percent depend on family members for financial support.
People with disabilities in Pakistan have traditionally been excluded from social, economic and political decision-making.
But in 2006, the Pakistani government and Civil Society started efforts to include people with disabilities in national development.
The World Bank in Pakistan has been working with the government in the launch of a National Policy for People with Disabilities; the Small Grants Program; assistance to bring children with mild to moderate disabilities into regular schools.
Successive Pakistani governments have been announcing different welfare schemes for disabled people
Before this card scheme, the National Council for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (NCRDP) was responsible to issue disability certificates which offer certain facilities including employment against a two percent reserved quota, free medical treatment in all federal government hospitals, rehabilitative aid and duty free import of cars.
source: http://www.Nation.co.ke / Home> News> World / by Ximhua / posted Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Dear Sir,
I am Farman Ullah Baig from Lahore. I am disabled person and qualified law graduate. I applied for the job of “Assistant District Public Prosecutor”on disabled quota on January 2012 and took the exam on March 2012, but unfortunately did not qualifying condition of Punjab Public Service Commission in written test. I requested the commission to consider me on disabled quota because of mentioning 2& quota in advertisement. The above commission told me that merit list is not separately made for disabled person on written test stage rather the merit list is separately made on interview stage.
What should i do now against the Punjab Public Service Commission for the non – implementation of disability quota in written test?
Please reply soon.
Thanks.