Staff Reporter
President Dr Arif Alvi has emphasised the need for establishing one-window operations in the country to expeditiously process disability certificates.
Speaking at a follow-up meeting on the registration of differently-abled persons in Islamabad on Thursday, the President said the existing procedure of certification and registration is quite slow and cumbersome, which needs to be simplified.
Addressing the meeting, the President said that persons with disability (PWDs) constituted almost 12-14 percent 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 composed of medical specialists and representatives of National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to swiftly process disability certificates. He advised the Ministry of National Health Services 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 Programme, would be completed by the end of June 2021.
The chairman NADRA informed the meeting that over 339,000 DAPs had been registered with NADRA.
The meeting was also attended by SAPM on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSR&C) Dr Faisal Sultan, Chairman NADRA Usman Yousaf Mobin and senior officials of the Ministry of Health.
