Senior citizens striving to have access to financial assistance, other facilities

PESHAWAR: Zakir Khan, 64, who is a heart patient, has been living a miserable life as he has no male child and source of income to meet his needs.

However, the senior citizen from Peshawar is still hopeful to get “Senior Citizen Card”.

He had applied for it four years ago in a bid to seek financial assistance and other facilities.

The government enacted the Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Senior Citizens Act 2014 to protect the rights of senior citizens.

“I have three daughters of whom two are getting education. My daughters are managing the expenses of their education through tuitions,” the senior citizen living at Yakatoot locality of the provincial capital told The News.

Like Zakir Khan, 0.8 million senior citizens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have applied for the card but it could not be issued to them to date.

Shawas Khan, 67, a farmer by profession, said other countries provided health, old age shelters and other incentives to their senior citizens, but they did not have these facilities in Pakistan. He said that successive governments did not care about the senior citizens.

According to the Community Research and Development Organisation, there are approximately 10 million senior citizens who constitute 7 percent of the total population of the country. The figure is estimated to reach 40.33 million by 2050.