MUZAFFARABAD:  Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said extending support to the orphans and physically disabled people is our social and religious obligation.  

“The Qur'an and Sunnah of the prophet teach us to treat people with any kind of disability with kindness and respect. It is, on one hand, our social responsibility to take care of the vulnerable and on the other, it is our religious obligation to assist them in fulfilling their special needs. 

He expressed these views while addressing a function organized by Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust (KORT) here on Friday to distribute wheelchairs among 110 disabled people. The function was also addressed among others, by the AJK Minister for Social Welfare Naureen Arif and the KORT Chief Chaudhry Mohammad Akhtar, and Zulqarnain Naqvi.

The President said that a society with plenty of hands to support the vulnerable and physically handicapped is bound to achieve heights of prosperity in this world besides the highest reward in the life hereafter.

Paying glowing tributes to the KORT chief for coming over here from the UK and contributing to post-earthquake relief and rehabilitation work in 2005 and establish a charity, the AJK president said that now Chaudhry Mohammad Akhtar has turned the KORT into the country's biggest welfare and charity organization.

He said that KORT has constructed a huge complex for orphans in Mirpur where the best accommodation, food and education were being provided to hundreds of parentless children in order to make them useful citizens.

He maintained that the KORT has now emerged as a role model for other organizations by offering social services in different fields and sectors. The AJK president said that the successive state governments have always supported the organization, and the cooperation with it would continue in future also.

He also appreciated Chaudhry Akhtar and his volunteers for their services during the current coronavirus pandemic. Speaking on the occasion, the AJK minister for social welfare termed the KORT chief Mohammad Akhtar as Abdus Sattar Edhi of Azad Kashmir.

She said that he had set a bright example of social services by establishing Asia's biggest orphanage in Mirpur and providing help to the needy and deserving people in every length and cranny of Azad Kashmir during any natural calamity.

On the occasion, the KORT chief reiterated to continue to extend social services till the last breath of his life and said that he was thankful to the KORT patron in chief Sardar Masood Khan and the cooperation of Ms Naureen Arif.

He said that the incumbent federal government was establishing 22 model villages throughout Pakistan for the rehabilitation of disabled and the vulnerable people, and three of them will be established in Azad Kashmir.

Chaudhry Akhtar said that his organization besides constructing 300 residential houses for quake victims in Mirpur, had provided relief to people in the whole of the liberated territory after the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

The KORT now is drawing up a comprehensive plan for providing relief and to rehabilitee the people affected by rain in Karachi, he added. Earlier a documentary was also screened to highlight the welfare-oriented activities of Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust.