K-P to spend Rs150m on special education complex

Yousafzai asks Rehman to disclose details of his deal with other opposition parties

PESHAWAR: The provincial government on Tuesday said that they are spending Rs150 million on building a special education complex dedicated for specially-abled people apart from increasing the capacity of the disability welfare fund and quota for specially-abled people for government jobs.

This was stated by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Information Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai on Tuesday at an event to mark International Day for Disabled People held at the Special Education Complex in Peshawar.

Yousafzai said that to facilitate specially-abled people, the provincial government was going to spend Rs150 on equipping and developing the complex.

Further, he said that the Disability Welfare Fund announced by K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan will be further enhanced.

With around 15 per cent of the population specially-abled, Yousafzai said that the quota for specially-abled people in government offices is being increased from two per cent to four per cent. A draft law for the purpose has been sent to the provincial law department for vetting.

He lamented that specially-abled people have never received the due respect from society which they deserve. The minister blamed past governments for failing to do anything for this marginalised section of society.

Blaming past rulers for devastating the economy of the country, Yousafzai said that opposition leader Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman is following an agenda that is not his own. He went on to exhort Rehman to disclose any deal he has made with other opposition parties to protect them.

He continued that if Rehman’s sit-in in the federal capital was a success, then why did he present a Plan B and then C.

“The people have rejected the sit-in,” Yousafzai said.

Later, the provincial minister visited various stalls and took a keen interest in the various items made by the disabled persons.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2019.