CM launches bionic prosthetics

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has launched a project for providing artificial limbs, hearing aids, wheelchairs and other assistive devices worth Rs1 billion to differently-abled people in the province.

More than 300 special people from all over Punjab attended the inauguration ceremony

The CM said the beneficiaries will be provided rollators, tricycles, manual, electric and motorised wheelchairs, walkers, frame mobile toilet chairs, pads, hearing aids and artificial limbs as per their needs."

She said, "Punjab has become the first province in Pakistan to have the ability to rehabilitate disabled people and make their lives as active as normal people through the bionics technology."

She added, "The world's most expensive and latest artificial limbs made with bionics technology have the ability to move according to the brain's signals."

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz fitted six-year-old Sohail, who had lost his arm below elbow to an electric shock, with an artificial arm developed through the technology. The artificial arm moves automatically when it receives signals from brain.

The boy moved his hand for the first time after the accident, and expressed his happiness by clapping. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz shook hands with Sohail and gave him a high five.

The chief minister also presided over a meeting to review the acquisition and recovery of loans under the Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar Programme of housing.

In view of public interest, a proposal to include more commercial banks in the housing scheme was considered in the meeting.

The participants were informed in a briefing that 28,219 families had received interest-free loans worth Rs 30 billion in five months. More than 23,500 houses are in their final stages of completion under the programme.