For handicapped in Sindh, a ‘card’ with a silver lining

The Sindh government has decided to give the disabled people in the province with a “Disability Card” for providing the persons with physical or any other impairment with facilities of international standards. The decision came at a meeting presided over by Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Special Education Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh held at the new Sindh Secretariat on Thursday, where Karachi Commissioner Roshan Ali Sheikh, Sindh Special Education Secretary Muhammad Ali Shah, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working for handicapped people and social welfare organisations were also present.
Sheikh was of the view that physically handicapped people had to visit various government departments to get their disability cards, but the process for acquiring various incentives including transportation facilities has been made easier now. “Our target is to issue cards to 10,000 disabled persons and once the process completes in Karachi, it will be started in other parts of the province,” he added.
It was decided at the meeting to make Karachi a “disabled-friendly city” while setting aside two percent government job quota for the handicapped people and starting an awareness campaign besides formulating a special education policy. The process of disbursement of cards will begin from February 11 on experimental basis at Aga Khan University Hospital, where initially 100 disabled people would be issued such cards through one-window operation. Speaking to the media after the meeting, the Karachi commissioner said the data of handicapped people would be collected through conducting a scientific study, for making Karachi a “disabled-friendly city”.He said various NGOs, other stakeholders and around 5,000 seminaries will be included in the exercise.