KARACHI, March 7: The federal government is considering introduction of a uniform policy for the welfare of physically or mentally disabled people, whose precise data has been collected by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra).

According to the computerized ID card data warehouse in the headquarters of Nadra in Islamabad, there are 674,583 people either physically or mentally disabled in the country. A majority of them — 425,550 — lives in Punjab.

Well-placed sources in Islamabad said that a standardized certificate, to be prepared by Nadra, would be issued to those people who were faced with disability. At present, such a certificate is issued at the provincial level.

The authenticity of such certificates is always questionable and a man or woman, who gets a certificate issued from a province, cannot get a job in other provinces or in the federal capital. If such a person needs a job, he has to undergo a cumbersome process of verification.

Nadra officials in Islamabad said that a form would be issued to disabled people by the provincial authorities concerned and after verification, the provincial authorities would issue a certificate which would be shown at any outlet of Nadra. The information in the form would be added to the data of those individuals and a computerized ID card, carrying the mark of wheelchair, would be issued to the individuals along with a standardized certificate. No ID card with a mark of wheelchair would require any further verification.

They said that after getting such ID cards, many people who were dependent on Zakat fund could get relief.

The Nadra statistics show that the largest number of disabled people lives in Punjab while Sindh comes next with 95,478. The NWFP has 94,519, Balochistan 16,154, Islamabad 7,633, Northern Areas 6,596, FATA 5,885 and AJK has 22,668 disabled people.

A break-up of the data shows that among the total population of disabled people, 53,425 are blind (32,793 in Punjab, 9,084 in Sindh, 6,947 in the NWFP, 1,599 in Balochistan, 511 in Northern Areas, 375 in Islamabad, 337 in FATA, and 1,779 people in AJK).

Those with hearing impairment number 52,850 (29,641 in Punjab, 9,620 in Sindh, 7,216 in the NWFP, 1,642 in the Northern Areas, 1,127 in Balochistan, 570 in Islamabad, 383 in FATA and 2,651 in AJK).

The number of those suffering from various sorts of physical disability is 227,255 (132,559 in Punjab, 37,474 in the NWFP, 37,083 in Sindh, 5,191 in Balochistan, 2,513 in Islamabad, 1,853 in FATA, 1,708 in Northern Areas and 8,874 in AJK).

The population of mentally retarded people is 24,527 (13,794 in Punjab, 5,324 in Sindh, 3,399 in the NWFP, 441 in Islamabad, 388 in Balochistan, 186 in Northern Areas, 102 in FATA and 893 in AJK). The people who are not mentally retarded, but are suffering from various types of mental illness number 17,477 (9,559 in Punjab, 3,349 in Sindh, 3,058 in the NWFP, 350 in Balochistan, 269 in Islamabad, 150 in Northern Areas, 88 in FATA and 654 in AJK).

The data shows that 7,119 people suffer from multiple disabilities. Of them, 4,147 live in Punjab, 1,194 in the NWFP, 1,079 in Sindh, 235 in Balochistan, 97 in Islamabad, 54 in Northern Areas, 47 in FATA, and 266 in AJK.

According to the Nadra statistics, the number of people having a disability other than those mentioned above is 291,930. Of them, 203,057 are in Punjab, 35,331 in the NWFP, 29,939 in Sindh, 7,264 in Balochistan, 3,368 in Islamabad, 3,075 in FATA, 2,345 in Northern Areas and 7,551 in AJK.