K-P govt ‘left disabled persons uncared for’

PESHAWAR: Speakers criticised on Friday the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for inaction over supporting people with special needs, contending that only aid organisations were actively helping in rehabilitating such persons.

The programme, held to celebrate the International Day of People with Disability, was held at the Pakistan Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Sciences in Hayatabad.It was attended, among others, by a large number of people with disability.

Criticising the provincial government’s attitude, Javed Ghani, the director of PIPOS Rehabilitation Service Programme (PRSP), said: “We are trying our best to rehabilitate people with all kinds of disabilities, but the waiting list is too long … Limited space constricts our ability to help large number of disabled persons … Currently, we can hardly help a few such persons every day.”

Expressing frustration, he said that the government did not value organisations that were helping people with special needs, adding that the institute had been offering services for the past 20 years, but it still lacked boarding facility for its patients.

Stressing the need for public acceptance of people with disabilities, the prime minister’s adviser Amir Muqam said that the federal government would support all such organisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2016.