At DWA conference, KE pledges Rs15m support package to Master Umer

Ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, K-Electric announced one of the largest support packages for the treatment of a disabled person by pledging Rs15 million to the ongoing treatment of young child Master Umer.

According to the company’s Chief HR Officer, Rizwan Dalia, who was speaking at a conference in a hotel on Wednesday, the KE will not only be procuring prosthetic limbs and the jacket necessary for fitting them, but also bearing costs of three to four replacements as the child grows older until the age of 24.

These comments were made during a Diversity and Inclusion forum organised by the Disability Welfare Association (DWA) and Soorty Enterprises ahead of World Disability Day. MNA Kishwar Zehra, director general of the Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities (DEPD), Sindh, Ghulam Nabi Nizamani, Faisal Edhi, and heads of prominent NGOs and banks were among those present on the occasion.

After careful consideration and extensive scrutiny, it was shared with the audience at the conference organised by the Disabled Welfare Association in Karachi that the KE has decided as a goodwill gesture to proceed with a technology called Zindagi 2.0, which is the most advanced among the available options.

The initial cheque of Rs3 million was also said to be ready. Hailing the KE Chief HR Officer’s announcement, the DWA also consented to be an intermediary to facilitate the process. The KE higher official at the event further shared with the participants that since 2018, the company has been supporting the child and his family by covering monthly school fees, monthly stipend, electricity bills, and also the complete cost of treatment, amounting to eight million rupees. Alongside supporting the cost of treatment, the KE will continue covering these costs until Umer is 24 years old, including education up to a master’s degree, which would bring the total financial support extended to an estimated 38 million rupees, inclusive of cost of prosthetics. Upon completing his educational qualifications, he will also be extended a job in line with his skills at the time.

The symposium was organised by DWA to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2022 with a resolution to come to action in real terms for the creation of an inclusive society in Pakistan. The symposium was to convince influential decision-makers of society to take practical initiatives to create an inclusive environment in Pakistan. Pragmatically, inclusion is a very new concept in Pakistan and stakeholders need to set a new direction for inclusion. Therefore, three plenary sessions were planned for this event on the topics of ‘Disability and industrial workforce’, ‘Disability and corporate workforce’, and ‘Inclusive Education’.

This announcement appears to be the first of its kind addressing disability. By comparison, in September 2021, Hesco paid 300,000 rupees to employees who sustained injuries in a PMT explosion in the Latifabad area of Hyderabad in July the same year. The families of the deceased received a maximum 750,000 rupees each. Most recently, a 28-million-rupee fine was levied on MEPCO in October by the power sector regulator NEPRA.