May 28, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25,1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 27: The ministry of women development, social welfare and special education will set up an assistive devices’ bank and a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in Islamabad, adviser to the prime minister Nilofar Bakhtiar said.

She was speaking at a seminar on “managing disabilities” organized by the National Trust for Disabled under the aegis of the ministry on Tuesday.

Ms Bakhtiar said Islamabad capital territory had already been declared as a disabled-friendly city and the directorate general of special education was setting up a hostel for the disabled in collaboration with the corporate sector and civil society organizations.

She said the directorate had also completed its paper work on establishing a park in Islamabad exclusively for the disabled.

“Let me assure you that you will not find us lacking as far as helping the disabled to build their capacity to play an affective role in society is concerned,” she added.

She said the ministry was working hard to provide a suitable environment to the disabled and recently it had formulated a national policy for them, which included provision of health-care facilities, rehabilitation services and overall improvement in the quality of life of those who suffered from disabilities.

The ministry, she added, had chalked out a comprehensive strategy for the implementation of the national policy. In the first step, the document has been translated into all the regional languages of the country as well as braille and audio formats to be disseminated to all the relevant departments.

“The government intends to launch the policy with a mega function titled “specially yours” on June 7 in Lahore.”

Ms Bakhtiar said the main emphasis of the policy was to create an awareness among the masses and promote a broad range of positive image of people with disabilities.

Defence Minister Rao Sikander Iqbal, who was the chief guest, said disabled people should be encouraged to participate in exhibitions, concerts and competitions so that they can demonstrate their abilities.

“I am of the view that disabled persons should be integrated into the mainstream of life as much as possible through education in regular schools, colleges and universities,” he said.

He said special events should be arranged during regular sport meets and utility services such as transport, commercial buildings, airports, railway stations, post offices, banks be modified to make them accessible to people with certain disabilities.

Amara Malik, a blind student of class XI who studies with normal students at a government college in Islamabad, shared with the participants of the seminar the difficulties she had been facing.