President Dr Arif Alvi has emphasised the need for establishing one-window operations in the country to expeditiously process disability certificates. He said that the existing procedure of certification and registration was quite slow and cumbersome which needed to be simplified for the facilitation of the differently-abled people (DAPs). He stated this while chairing a follow-up meeting on the registration of DAPs, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today. The meeting was attended by SAPM on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Dr Sania Nishtar, SAPM on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSR&C), Dr Faisal Sultan, Chairman NADRA, Mr Usman Yousaf Mobin and senior officials of Ministry of Health.
Addressing the meeting, the President said that persons with disability (PWDs) constituted almost 12-14% of the country’s population and they faced great difficulties in getting their disability certificates. In order to facilitate them, he asked the concerned stakeholders to establish an institutional setup to be comprised of medical specialists and representatives of NADRA in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to swiftly process disability certificates. He advised the M/o NHSR&C to approach the provinces comprehensively to evolve a consensus on the definition of disability as well as decide modalities for the certification of disabilities.
SAPM on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Dr Sania Nishtar, briefed the meeting that the survey on PWDs, under the Ehsaas Program, would be completed by the end of June 2021. Chairman NADRA informed the meeting that over 339,000 DAPs had been registered with NADRA.
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