ISLAMABAD: Senior citizens of the city met for a celebration on Wednesday with a simple wish – that the government and the society treat them better than as a burden.

It was not a cry of helplessness that they raised at the universal UN Senior Citizens Day but for recognition that they had been productive and contributed to the society once.

All they asked for was that the people’s representatives in the parliament pass the Senior Citizens Bill, pending for more than a decade, and the government provides them some relief in the meantime.

Passage of the bill would lay down a comprehensive social welfare system for the country’s more than 10 million senior citizens, Mr. H.M. Chohan, Secretary General of the Senior Citizens Foundation, which organised the function, told the gathering.

Vice chairman of the foundation, Akbar Hayat Gandapur, elaborated that turning the bill into law would enable the government to establish welfare homes and rehabilitation centres for the elderly. He also urged the government to increase the pension of retired civil servants to meet the rising costs of medicines and the general inflation.

Senior citizens seek law that ensures their welfare and some relief

“Health care of the elderly is important. There are few Geriatrics experts in the country for the population of 10 million elderly,” he said. They cannot lead secure, independent and dignified lives on their own and need society’s help. The government should utilise the expertise, experiences and skills of the active elderly and associate them in the development and implementation of welfare and nation-building programmes.

“It is imperative for the seniors to use their talent and resources individually and collectively for the welfare and advancement of the community in general,” said the vice president of the foundation.

The gathering unanimously passed three resolutions calling for early passage of the Senior Citizens Bill, sustained good governance in the country and addressing the problems the elderly are facing, particularly the increasing costs of living, inadequate employment opportunities and lack of social justice.

But the major problem the resolutions mentioned was the constantly rising prices of medicines. It asked the government to act against the “anti-poor and anti-elderly profiteering” by the pharmaceutical companies, and demanded a 20 per cent increase in the medical allowances of pensioners, frozen since 2010.

On the occasion Senior Citizen of the Year Award 2014 was conferred on Mian Mohammad Siddique Akbar and the Distinguished Senior Citizen Award 2014 on Mehmoodul Hasan for their “outstanding contribution towards the growth and devoted activities for the cause of the Foundation”.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd , 2014