The Lahore Businessmen Association for the Rehabilitation of Disabled (Labard) held a Mela here on Monday Mela for the special children which was participated by a large number of disabled peoples of all age groups, who enjoyed all the entertainment, like other healthy members of the society.
Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Waleed Sehgol was the chief guest. "The purpose of this Mela is to provide encouragement to the disabled persons and make them useful citizens of the society so that they could be able to play a positive role in their future life," he said.
Addressing the participants, the Labard President Pervaiz Malik and LCCI Acting President Yaqoob Tahir Izhar said it was a duty of every citizen to play his role for the betterment of the society.
"Over 10 percent population of all the developing countries consists of disabled persons that needs to be taken care of by the rest of the 90 percent in the larger interests of the whole society, they said. They said that every one should cooperate with NGOs like Labard as nearly 200,000 people are waiting for help in the suburbs of Lahore.
While appreciating the LCCI role in making the event a big success, Pervaiz Malik said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also extending every help to the Labard persons as they are an important segment of the society and their active participation is necessary for country's development.
Both the speakers said that there is a need to launch specific programs for training and education of disabled persons. Malik said that Labard was serving the ailing humanity by providing them with medical facilities, transplantation of cornea and by extending Qarz-e-Hasna besides training and job placements.
The Director General Parks and Horticulture Authority Raja Mohammad Abbas, LCCI President-elect Mohammad Ali Mian, Senior Vice President-elect Mian Muzaffar Ali, Vice President-elect Shafqat Saeed Piracha, former President Mian Misbahur Rehman also spoke on the occasion and said that disability in Pakistan was a biggest challenge and it was our prime duty to play our role to cope with this challenge.