Paraplegic Centre’s CEO proposes experts committee to design roadmap

International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Dr Ilyas Syed laments lack of attention to disabled people

PESHAWAR: Dr Ilyas Syed, chief executive officer of the Paraplegic Centre, Hayatabad has proposed to the provincial and federal governments to form a committee of experts with representation from all relevant walks of life to design a roadmap for the treatment and physical rehabilitation of the people with disabilities so that they can play their role as dignified citizens.

On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, he said representatives of people with disabilities, physical therapists, rehab doctors and other relevant medical and physical rehab professionals should be included in the committee. “It is time the people with disabilities are treated as equally dignified citizens and not as the children of a lesser God,” he stressed.

Lamenting that no concrete measures have been taken to help the people with disabilities, Dr Ilyas Syed argued that even the extent of the issue isn’t known in Pakistan as the figure of incidence of the problem is quoted at a low 2.5 percent according to the last census in the country in 1998. “This is despite the fact that the prevalence of disability increases with poverty, illiteracy and armed conflicts. Pakistan is one of the two countries where polio is a serious threat for children’s health and many people still refuse vaccination, intra-family marriages that are leading cause of disability are encouraged, and armed conflicts are still raging,” he pointed out.

According to Dr Ilyas Syed, Pakistan ratified “UNCRPD” in 2011 and it is now mandatory for the government not only to recognize the rights of the people with disabilities in total, but also implement all 50 articles of the convention. However, he said the ground reality is altogether different even though the international day of people with disabilities is celebrated every year with great pomp and show. He noted that the problems facing the people with disabilities are discussed and the government is criticized for not enough to help them, but very few make any effort to do something about it.

The CEO of the Paraplegic Centre, Hayatabad, Peshawar, opined that the society doesn’t encourage marriages outside the family to prevent some of the avoidable disabilities, the religious scholars aren’t ready to design inclusive mosques and the medical fraternity is least bothered about the prevalence and prevention of disabilities and know little about the treatment and physical rehabilitation of the victims.

Dr Ilyas Syed lamented that some of the educationists ridicule the few functionally impaired students who manage to get admission in a regular academic institution. He said at times they bluntly refuse to admit persons with disability or offer them jobs.

He pointed out that the government’s special education department neither has the resources nor the know-how to educate and rehabilitate the special people, or people with disabilities. “Interestingly enough, special education is not run and managed by the department of education or the department of health. Rather it is a neglected part of the Social Welfare, Special Education and Women Empowerment Department and this reveals its state of importance,” he added.

Dr Ilyas Syed pinpointed the apathy of the works building control authority and transportation department towards the needs of the people with disabilities so that public buildings, parks, roads and other means of transportation are made accessible for them.

“No one is even bothered about implementing the two percent quota allocated to people with disabilities in jobs in the public and private sector,” he claimed.

Though he felt the health department was best suited to look after the needs of the people with disabilities showing a few isolated stories of success, in his view this wasn’t enough.

The Paraplegic Centre, an autonomous institution headed by him and working under the umbrella of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department, is serving people with spinal cord injuries from all over the province, Fata and other parts of Pakistan. Dr Ilyas Syed informed that patients are treated free of cost and the standards are of international level. He added that people with all kinds of other acquired and/or congenital disabilities like TBIs (Traumatic Brain Injuries), stroke, polio, CP (Cerebral Palsy) etc, are treated & comprehensively rehabilitated at the centre.

Terming the Parapledgic Centre as a model and comprehensive physical rehabilitation facility, he said many more such specialized centres were needed at the divisional and even district level with small satellite centres in all tehsil headquarters hospitals and rural health centres.

Dr Ilyas Syed explained that the number of people with severe head and spinal cord and other associated injuries is rising due to the improved roads on one end hand and the alarmingly increasing number of immature motor-bikers on the other. “Besides, there are kids born with disabilities and the victims of stroke (CVA or Cerebrovascular accidents. We need to improve and extend the treatment and rehabilitation facilities to cope with the situation,” he added.