PESHAWAR, March 24: NWFP senior minister Sirajul Haq has said the government has told the electronic media to broadcast welfare and education-oriented programmes for parents of special children.

Speaking at a ‘National Paediatric Conference’ at a local hotel, he said the government would curtail the non-developmental expenditure and divert the amount to upgrade health facilities in the province.

Mrs Zahid, the mother of six-year-old Sara suffering from Down’s Syndrome, told this reporter at the conference that she had learnt to live with her daughter’s life-long affliction with aplomb.

“Sometimes I wonder why God has blessed me with a special child. I think I have been chosen by God to be a special parent,” Mrs Zahid said, adding that she wanted to write a book on her daughter and share her experience with other parents who had special children.

A man who arrived at the conference with his 11-year-old son, Karimullah, expressed ignorance of where he should get his special son treated. “I have resources, but I don’t know where to take my son for treatment,” said Said Qadeem.

“More special educational and vocational centres are needed for special children and parents can play an important role in the treatment of special children,” Dr Firdous Awan said.

Dr Rao A. Tawwab showed a film about a Lahore-based school for special children.

He said there were 30,000 special children in Lahore alone and added that 2 per cent of all newborns were mentally retarded.

Experts stressed the need for educational institution centres for special children and said public health system needed improvement for the rehabilitation of special children.

The director of special education, Sibghatur Rehman, said the federal government had opened 52 special education centres in the country.

Twenty-one such centres were in the NWFP, he said and added that 23 other educational centres for special children had been set up in the province by NGOs.