FAISALABAD: A consultation meeting entitled “Disability Rights Framework for Creating a Barrier Free Accessible Environment” was held under the auspices of Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) in collaboration with Nation Welfare Foundation (NWF) and Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID Network).
During the meeting, the participants said that the government must introduce new comprehensive legislation and reforms in the existing laws and policies to safeguard disability rights.
Speaking on the occasion, the program director of the AWAM, Naseem Anthony said, “The persons with disabilities are neglected and considered as an uncounted community. It is the responsibility of the government to conduct census after every five years, but regrettably no census has been conducted since 1998. But according to unofficial sources, the population of disability communities lies between 10% and 15% of the total population of Pakistan, therefore quota for them must be reserved accordingly.”
“The standing committee for law and justice has rejected the proposed bill regarding allocation of reserved seats for disability community, therefore the rejected bill must be revisited, as there is no representative of the disability community in the assembly, having familiarity about their real issues,” he added.
A disability rights activist, Shazia George said, “Laws are worthless without solid enforcement and timely reforms. It is pity that the successive governments have not paid attention towards the Employment and Rehabilitation Ordinance for Disabled Persons (1981), which has not been revisited for last thirty-three years despite having flaws and not having covered all the issues of the disability community.”
“The Government must create comprehensive legislation and policies in conformity with the CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) ratified by Pakistan, and should make determined efforts to address their concerns, not only in the pledges, but also in policies and implementation mechanism for making a barrier-free accessible environment for them,” she demanded.
The president of the Nation Welfare Foundation, Saif Ali Khan said, “All human beings are created equally, but the intolerance begins at home, when the family members start comparing the persons with disabilities to the persons without disabilities, the motive behind the comparison is the rejection of the persons with disabilities, this ill-treatment comes in various sorts and definitely have more rigorous consequences on people with disabilities”.
“Therefore we must aware all the members of the society to transform constructive thoughts towards the persons with disabilities for their inclusion and acceptability,” he said.
A lawyer, Basharat Hussain said, “The persons with disabilities are basically excluded from social and political processes due to stumpy legislation by the government of Pakistan. The disability registration process should be friendly and integrated into one-window operation in all districts of Punjab Province at concerned hospitals with the better coordination of all government stakeholders including social welfare, labour and health departments.”
The medical social welfare officer, Ghulam Shabir said, “There should be coordination between school administration, social welfare and other government departments for registration and collection of data about persons with disabilities. It is necessary to introduce one-window operation for disability registration process, and create bi-lingual disability registration form, and multiply information about the worth of disability certificate and CNIC with disability logo.”
A representative of labor department, Malik Imran said, “Person with disabilities are quite in the dark, and even they are not prepared to make disability certificates and CNIC with disability logo. There is a need of awareness raising to provide information about how to avail facilities available for disability community possessing CNIC with disability logo.”
“The NADRA must help persons with disabilities to avail CNIC with disability logo to be eligible to gain disability benefits,” he added.
A journalist, Pirzada Iqbal Hussain said, “The media images and stories influence thinking and establish social norms. The representation of disability community in the media plays a major role in forming public perception about disability, but they have endured misrepresentation and defamation in the media in previous years.”
“The media should share the success stories of persons with disabilities so that misconceptions and negative perceptions towards them could be transformed into positive attitude by the general public, and must educate the public about the disability registration process and benefits of CNIC with disability logo,” Hussain added.
The event was joined by 27 Muslim and Christian participants including people with disabilities, government officials, lawyers, journalists, and social workers. Ghulam Shabir (Medical Social Officer), Malik Imran (Labour Department), Naseem Anthony (Director Program-AWAM), Shazia George (Coordinator-AWAM), Saif Ali Khan (NWF), Basharat Hussain (Lawyer High Court), Ch. Badar Munir (President free legal aid) and Pirzada Iqbal Hussain (Journalist) were among the dignitaries of the consultation.
