Iftikhar Hussain Jazib
Respected PM Nawaz Sharif and CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif:
Both of you had met Saima Ammar who passed away in 2011. Mian Shahbaz Sharif, in 2009, Saima Ammar (late) attended a prize distribution ceremony of all the educational boards of Punjab on your invitation, which proved to be her last public appearance as well. Mian Nawaz Sharif, impressed by her Audio World Project, you promised financial assistance of Rs.5000000 for her organization in 1999, Shortly before the military coup. But, unfortunately, no official recognition for her services for the persons with disabilities has been made so far.
Here, we only request you for conferring Saima Ammar with the award that she deserved in her life time. If we will continue to forget remarkable disable persons like Saima Ammar, we cannot overcome prevalent negative perception regarding disable people in our society. Therefore, it is very important to keep them alive in our history through honoring them with national awards and adding their biographical stories in our educational curriculum.
Top government officials including presidents, Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers were well aware of her contributions for this country. Even, with her efforts, during the rule of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, many amendments were made in government rules and regulations in the favor of persons with disabilities.
Saima Ammar did not even herself lead an exemplary life despite being blind, but she also became the main source of lighting the vigil for the education of thousands of other visually impaired persons. Under her leadership, the Pakistan Foundation Fighting Blindness (PFFB) recorded the text books’ course of all the Education Boards and affiliated universities of the country, in the form of audio cassettes. It is only because of her that these audio cassettes are available to the blind students at very nominal prices. For instance, the BA course of Punjab University, in the form of 200 recorded cassettes, is available to a candidate, on the application of financial assistance, for Rs.100 only. Till now, around 4500 visually impaired students have got benefited through this programme of the PFFB.
Besides her services in formal education for the special persons, Saima Ammar also devoted her time to relish the appetite of visually impaired persons for literature. She got several poetry, novel, fiction, biography and other publications recorded on audio cassettes. These cassettes are further dispatched to the thousands of blind persons in the country, by the registered post service, for free.
Saima did not only highlight the issues and the problems faced by the special persons in the country, but even going one step ahead, she put all her efforts for the solution of these problems. Her father, Brigadier (retd) Niaz was an old associate of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. Saima made a positive and healthy use of this relationship, and got succeeded in getting the doors of government jobs open for the persons with disabilities. It is only because of her efforts that, today, the disable aspirants can also appear in the competition exams like CSS, and some of them have even secured the top merit positions in these exams.
With the help of her husband, Ammar Masood, TV anchor, and her father-in-law, famous poet, Anwar Masood, Saima also represented the special persons in media and created awareness regarding their rights in the society.
Saima Ammar, Chief Executive Officer of the PFFB lost her eyesight at the age of two-and-a-half. Her optic nerve was totally damaged following a severe attack of typhoid in 1971. Saima started her education in Pakistan at the Al-Maktoum Special Education Centre, did her matric from Station School, and graduated from FG College for Women. Her biggest dream was to get a Masters degree in International Relations from Quaid-i-Azam University which she achieved with distinction.
The history of women activism in Pakistan and welfare of persons with disabilities will remain incomplete if the name of Saima Ammar (late) will not be mentioned. Being a woman and special person, the milestones Saima achieved are enough to raise all praise for her. She really deserves the highest civil award of Pakistan for her services for humanity in general, and for special persons in particular. The visually impaired persons of the country would never forget the services of Saima Ammar.
Saima was an inspiration for visually-impaired people across the globe since her education programme will benefit millions of visually-impaired people in years to come. She left a success story for the persons with disabilities to follow in Pakistan.
The writer is PhD scholar at SCHOOL of Politics and International Relations Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad. He can be contacted at Jazib.iftikhar@gmail.com
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