Trying to see things clearly...

Pakistan Association of Blind People organises walk, several visually impaired people and their families participate.

SARGODHA: The Pakistan Association of Blind People (PAB) organised a walk in which several visually impaired people and their family members participated.

The walk was organized to mark World White Cane Day on Saturday.  Local administration members and teachers also joined in the walk to campaign for the rights of the visually impaired in Pakistan.

“It is important to raise awareness not only about the problems that blind people face but also working towards practical solutions,” said Munawwar Hakeem, a 63-year-old visually impaired man.

The walk began at Kalma Chowk and the crowd made its way through the city towards Gol Chowk. PAB Sargodha district president Dr Muhammad Iqbal said that visually impaired people should be provided resources and facilities that would help them integrate into society. “These people need our help, whether that involves treatment, education or rehabilitation,” he said, adding that the government needed to make an effort to incorporate facilities for the disabled at every level. PAB secretary information Sajjad Haider said that the government had already allotted a 2 percent quota for the visually impaired in the job market but that this was almost never implemented.

“We simply don’t have the facilities to make it possible for visually impaired people to survive in society without needing to depend on others. In foreign countries all efforts are utilised to help them become independent but we fail in this,” Haider said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2010.