CM Sindh inaugurates Autism Rehabilitation Center in Karachi

KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday inaugurated the province’s  first ever Center of Autism Rehabilitation & Training (C-ART) in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar area, ARY News reported.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that Autism is not a disease but a problem which the parents and the society have to understand to handle “lovingly, medically and carefully”.

“It is our responsibility to support our children who are differently abled,” said the CM.

He said that it was a big problem to establish institutions but the problem is to find dedicated and devoted professionals to run them in the public interest and make them genuine institutions.

Alhamdolliah! My labour of love, Pakistan’s first public sector free of cost Autism Center is operational today, project conceived & approved in 2016, work started in May 2017 & completed in June 2018. pic.twitter.com/6wtmas40sk

— Sharmila faruqi (@sharmilafaruqi) September 8, 2018

“Today we have established C-ART and we have found some dedicated people to make this institution one of the best in South Asia,” he said and proudly said that it was the biggest C-Art institution in public sector in South Asia.

He pointed that through different presentations he has found that more people of administration were working in C-Art than the trainers or experts.

“We have to increase the strength of trainers and teaching staff to make it a professional institution,” he said and added that he was ready to provide funds whatever the C-Art administration needs but made it clear that he wants to see  actual results and genuine rehabilitation.

The chief minister urged C-Art administration to establish its satellite centers in others parts of the province.

TMurad Ali Shah said that there are over 60 million people with autism across the world of which many third world countries in Africa and Asia, including Pakistan, do not even have access to any public services.

“The situation is definitely alarming,” he said and added in a country like Pakistan, where reasonable education remains a dream even for an average person, affording rehabilitation services an autistic child remains something like a big challenge.

Murad Ali Shah in 2016-17 had allocated Rs71.7 million to establish a Centre of Autism Rehabilitation and Training Sindh (C-Arts) in a three-story building with 38 room rooms establishing over an area of three acres at Gulistan-e-Jauhar. It is first ever center in the public sector and the biggest in South Asia.

It has the capacity to enroll 300 children in a session and it would cater to the needs of the autism children whose parents cannot afford private institutes’ fees.

The Autism Centre has been completed and ready to facilitate children and their families.

Earlier, The chief minister unveiled the plaque to inaugurate the newly constructed center. When he arrived at the center special children sung a song to welcome him.