Lahore: September 8, 2015. (PCP) The Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) organized a provincial consultative meeting titled “Implementation of CRPD and Domestic Legal Framework” in collaboration with Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) Network at Ambassador Hotel, Lahore on 27 August 2015. The prime objective of the consultation was to discuss the situation of the implementation of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and legislative efforts in Punjab for the persons with disabilities. Besides, the challenges faced by the persons with disabilities and its resolves were also the part of the discussion. This consultation was joined by the representatives of Social Welfare & Bait-ul-Mall Department, Punjab Commission for the Rehabilitation of Disabled People (PCRDP), Rotary International Lahore, Kawish Resource Centre, Asia News, Technical Services Association (TSA) and Lyallpur Development Organization. The government must set up an independent and autonomous national commission/institution to implement and monitor the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) in a true sense, and should ratify its optional protocol to make a better, accessible and barrier-free environment for persons with disabilities. The government should include women with disabilities while making policies for them. The government must introduce comprehensive legislation catering to the needs and problems of disability community with 15% population in Pakistan, and make sincere efforts to bring the most marginalized group of the society into mainstream, so that the suppression and exploitation of their due rights could be stopped. This was demanded by the participants of the Provincial consultative meeting. Speaking on the event, the Program Director of AWAM, Naseem Anthony said, “The government has ratified the UNCRPD in 2011 but unable to adopt it in domestic legislation which is redoubling the ordeals of the Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). Government of Pakistan must take necessary legislative measures for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities,” he added. A women rights activist, Shazia George said, “The government of Pakistan has ratified Convention on the Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) despite the women with disabilities are still ignored not only by the state institutions but by the civil society organizations as well,” she further added. “Though the government of Pakistan has taken many positive steps for the development of women and announced different schemes but unable to include the women with disabilities into their development agendas, government should include women with disabilities while making policies for them.” “The government must create an environment which ensures the full participation and possible ways to empower women with disabilities for a dignified life.” The representative of Punjab Social Welfare and Bait-ul-Maal, Sohail Butt said, “No doubt the work on disability has been done on slow pace but in the past three years the Social Welfare department introduced different packages for the persons with disabilities.” He further added, “Social Welfare always seeks the support of the civil society organizations to make the service delivery mechanism effective and efficient.” He also shared, “Punjab Policy for persons with disabilities has been formulated and in the process of final draft which will be promulgated in couple of months.” “The enhancement in reserved job quota and announcement of Khidmat Card for the financial assistant of Persons with disabilities are also the achievements of the Social Welfare”, he informed the participants. A representative of Rotary International Lahore, Sana Azhar said, “The society is not accepting the disability as a diversity as most of the time, the persons with disabilities have to face the attitudes of sympathy which discourage them.” “The government must introduce a comprehensive policy and implementation mechanism to influence the discriminatory attitudes and behaviors towards the persons with disabilities. Women with disabilities should be included into the schemes and policies announced by the government and appoint the recruit the PWDs in the departments concerned to deal the matters of PWDs,” she demanded. The Executive Director of Kawish Resource Centre, Asif Sardar said, “The Unemployment rates are higher among the persons with disabilities. There was two percent reserved quota which is enhanced to three percent on March 2015 but the implementation mechanism is not available and the division of the quota according to the disabilities is also not considered as well. Therefore the government must implement the 3% quota,” he demanded. The General Secretary of TSA, Barsila John, said, “Entire disability concerned departments are not accessible for the persons with disabilities as most of them are situated at first floor. The government must avoid using the discriminatory terms for PWDs and ensuring the accessibility to all the reserved facilities and the concerned department for PWDs,” she suggested.