LAHORE: Federal Commerce Minister Pervaiz Malik said on Saturday that bright future is the destiny of nations which take extra care of distressed segments of society by including them in the economic mainstream.
The commerce minister, who is also Lahore Businessmen Association for Rehabilitation of Disabled (LABARD) president, along with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Malik Tahir Javaid inaugurated the LABARD Mela-2017 at Race Course Park in Lahore.
Pervaiz Malik expressed pleasure that businessmen of Lahore were fulfilling their corporate social responsibility by ensuring that all the disabled children of the city were provided proper education and vocational training so that they could join the mainstream economic activities.
Appreciating LCCI’s role in making the event a success, he opined that the chamber was also extending every possible help to Lahore Businessmen Association for the rehabilitation of disabled persons as they were an important segment of the society and their active participation was necessary for country’s development. He added that there was a need to launch specific programmes for training and education of disabled persons.
The minister also said that it was the duty of every citizen to play his role for betterment of the society, citing that over 10 per cent population of all the developing countries consisted of disabled persons, which needed to be taken care of by the rest of the 90 per cent in the larger interests of the whole society.
He also said that everyone should cooperate with organisations like LABARD as around 200,000 physically challenged people were awaiting help in the suburbs of the city.
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed suggested that frequency of LABARD Mela should be increased by arranging it twice a year. He said, “We should make collective efforts for enhancing skills of special persons so that they can become useful members of the society.”
He also paid tributes to the organisers of the LABARD festival and said that the LCCI would continue to extend cooperation to the association for this noble cause.
He also said that there was a provision in the law that private sector and public sector would employ special persons by up to two per cent respectively. He assured that LCCI would continue to motivate its member companies to show a greater compliance with this law and may refer interested members to contact job placement cell of LABARD to have suitable candidates.
The physically disabled thoroughly enjoyed the festival as many games and cultural activities were arranged for them. Many of them performed at the stage as well and each of them was given a present containing some gifts and eateries.
LABARD festival for special children has become an annual cultural event of the city and has since its initiation been participated by a large number of disabled persons who enjoy all the entertainments like other healthy members of the society.
As many as 5,000 special children belonging to various institutions took part in different activities at the festival. The basic aim of holding this event is to give encouragement to the disabled persons and make them useful citizens of the society so that they can be able to play a positive role in their life.
