Call to set up school for blind in upper Hazara

MANSEHRA: The visually impaired people on Sunday demanded the establishment of a school for blind children in the upper parts of Hazara to make them productive citizens.

“It is unfortunate that despite repeatedly taking up this issue with high-ups in both federal and provincial governments, we couldn’t succeed in getting approved schools for the blind children in upper parts of the division,” Mohammad Bilal, the chairman of a non-governmental organization working for rights of the visually impaired people, told reporters here. Flanked by a group of visually impaired people, he said the blind children of Mansehra, Torghar, Kolai-Palas, Battagram, Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan were without any such educational institutions.

“The chief minister in the previous Tehreek-e-Insaf government had promised to establish a school for the blind in Mansehra to cater to the educational needs of the visually impaired girls and boys in upper parts of Hazara but to no avail,” he said.

“This region with over three million populations is without a single special educational school for the blind,” he lamented. Bilal, who himself is visually impaired, said that Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and his Assistant on Social Welfare Mashal Yusufzai should take notice of the situation and notify the establishment of an educational institution for children suffering from visual imparity.

He said the previous PTI government in KP had announced to enhance the existing 2 percent quota of people with disabilities in the public sector employment to 4 percent but it was yet to be notified. “The chief minister should chalk out a comprehensive strategy to ensure an environment for people with disabilities in every sphere of life and enhance their employment quota to 4 percent without,” he said.