The Legal Aid Society, under the Aawaz II programme implemented by Care Pakistan with support from FCDO, convened the Provincial Forum on Social Inclusion in Karachi to tackle the gap between Sindh\u2019s progressive laws and the lived realities of transgender persons and persons with disabilities. The forum focused on concrete measures to improve access to justice across the province.<\/p>\n
District partners IRC, Sami Foundation, HWA and AWARE presented consolidated community findings from Malir, Thatta, Badin, Mirpurkhas and Umerkot showing systemic failures that block inclusion. Participants heard about difficulties in disability-certification processes, routine humiliation and physical barriers when accessing services, the absence of dedicated shelters for transgender persons and widespread but largely invisible caregiver abuse against PWDs, as well as the lack of trained focal officers in police stations and zero representation of transgender persons or PWDs on disaster committees and welfare planning forums.<\/p>\n
Ms. Abia Akram of STEP offered a national analysis of barriers to access to justice for people with disabilities, while community advocates Ms. Zehrish Khan and Ms. Aradhiya Khan set out reform priorities centred on coordination with duty bearers, inclusive public services and ensuring dignity in service delivery for transgender persons. The discussion emphasised that legal entitlements must translate into accessible, respectful systems on the ground.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ratana outlined DEPD\u2019s institutional priorities including rollout of the Shanakht identity certificate and operations across 30 districts with approximately 100,000 persons with disabilities registered. She reaffirmed efforts to enforce the 5 percent PWD employment quota and urged a rights-based shift in discourse, underlining that persons with disabilities are not beggars<\/strong> but citizens entitled to what the law guarantees.<\/p>\n Mr. Abdul Hakeem of the Social Welfare Department briefed attendees on Karachi\u2019s Community Development Centre for Transgender Persons, noting CNIC barriers to enrolment and describing SWD plans for employer sensitisation, community awareness and strengthened protection against violence and discrimination.<\/p>\n Facilitated by Ms. Maliha Zia of LAS, the strategic dialogue produced time-bound departmental asks to advance access to justice, including trans-inclusive NADRA SOPs and mobile camps, enforcement of the 5 percent PWD and 2 percent transgender quotas, trained focal officers in every police station, gazetting caregiver abuse as a reportable offence, establishing inclusive shelters and reserving seats for transgender persons and PWDs on DDMA plans and welfare boards. Participants committed to follow up through Aawaz II\u2019s provincial engagement channels and to submit these actions to the Multi-Sectoral Coordination Committee and its Technical Working Groups.<\/p>\n Delegates from government, statutory bodies, the judiciary, civil society and community groups reaffirmed their commitment to implement time-bound measures that close gaps in service delivery and strengthen access to justice for Sindh\u2019s most marginalised communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aawaz II forum advances access to justice for transgender persons and PWDs in Sindh with clear departmental asks and time-bound follow up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}