17 October 2004	Sunday	02 Ramazan 1425

TAXILA, Oct 16: Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Ghulam Sarwar Khan has said a rehabilitation centre for the visually-impaired people will be set up at Wah Cantonment next year in collaboration with the Pakistan Baitul Maal (PBM).

Speaking at a seminar held in connection with the White Cane Safety Day at Wah Cantonment on Friday evening, he said the government would make all-out efforts for the welfare of special people. The seminar was organized by an NGO, Eye Donors Association.

The minister added that for the first time the government had approved a national policy about special people which would play a major role to bring them at par with other people.

He said the government had signed a number of agreements at international level to provide maximum facilities to the special people and protect their rights. He said the government had also allowed the special people to appear in the CSS examination.

He said the summary for the two per cent quota for the special people had been moved in the federal cabinet and a favourable decision in this regard would be taken soon.

Mr Khan said according to the World Health Organization at present 14 million people deserved special education in the country. He said according to an estimate four million people around the globe were visually impaired, out of whom one million were in Pakistan alone. He said according to a survey conducted by an NGO, the number of visually-impaired people in Taxila tehsil was 1,000.

He said after establishment of the rehabilitation centre at Wah Cantonment, the visually-impaired people in the area would be facilitated to a large context. The minister also announced donation of his own eyes and those of his family members to the NGO.

PBM Managing-Director Brig (retired) Mohammad Sarfaraz said Punjab government was providing financial resources for the welfare of special people. He said the PBM had allocated a sum of Rs5 million for the social welfare sector while 1.5 million were reserved for the conducting eye operations.

Truck hijacked: A truck was hijacked on Sangjani link road in the jurisdiction of Taxila police.

Taj reported to the police that he was going from Margalla towards Sangjani link road on his truck (AKA-7640) when some unknown masked men pulled up and overpowered him.