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PESHAWAR, Feb 4: The board of governors of the welfare home for orphans has decided to vacate a portion of the which has been used for schooling and accommodating blind girls.
The decision has been taken in view of federal government's plan to start a new project in the building. The provincial government was running the welfare home which was providing schooling and accommodation in a rented building of the Special Education Complex to orphans.
The upper storey of the building was used by an institute for blind girls, which is the only institute for visually impaired girls in the province. The building is owned by the federal government which wants to set up a vocational training project in it.
The federal government had asked the NWFP government to vacate the building some time ago. However, the welfare home could not be shifted to another suitable place for various reasons.
A meeting of the Board of Governors of the Welfare Home, Hayatabad, presided over by its patron-in-chief Shamim Iftikhar, wife of the NWFP governor, was held here at the Governor's House on Friday to discuss the issue.
The meeting discussed issues concerning the welfare home and took certain decisions. Detailed discussions were held on the shifting of the welfare home. The board decided to vacate one block of the building with immediate effect by shifting the school for the orphans to the first block. The shifting of the school to the upper block would displace the blind girls.
The blind girls who have come from far-flung areas of the province due to non-availability of special education for them were not only educated but also provided accommodation.
The decision regarding shifting of 18 blind girls to the Government Institute for Blinds will be taken in the next meeting of the board to be held next week, an official handout issued here on Friday said.
Ms Iftikhar, while addressing the meeting, said that the welfare home would continue to function as it was the only broad-based welfare institution serving the destitute and orphan children in the provincial capital. She urged the board to look into the possibility of hiring a rented building for the welfare home.
AGENCY COUNCILS: A handout issued here said that a delegation of the newly-elected women councillors from Fata called on Ms Iftikhar at the Governor's House on Friday.
The delegation comprising Zeenat Anjam of Mohmand Agency, Perveen Zaman, Suraya Kanwal Afridi and Shaheena Jan of Khyber Agency also discussed problems of the women folk in FATA.
Talking to the delegation, Ms Iftikhar said that women representation in the agency councils would not only give impetus to the status of women in the particular social environment of Fata but would also broaden the overall outlook about women in the tribal areas.
She said that the councillors were mostly educated and hoped that their presence in the agency councils would create awareness about women education in Fata.
