Disability in Pakistan

The Bureau itself accepted that the census might not be thorough; an official stated: "There was a possibility that the number of transgender and disabled persons had not been shown in complete detail.

[9][10] The government of Sindh recently announced that driving licences will be issued to people with hearing disabilities, as the provincial cabinet has approved the issuance of it.

[6] Not only this, Persons with Disabilities also faced issues during General Elections and could not exercise their right to vote because of inaccessible polling stations.

[13] As per British Council's report Moving from the margins: Mainstreaming persons with disabilities in Pakistan (2014), PWDs tend to have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, higher rates of poverty, and less economic participation.

These conditions ultimately exclude PWDs as productive members of society; some estimates suggest the cost of exclusion leads to an annual loss of US$11.9bn-15.4bn or 4.9-6.3% of Pakistan's GDP.

The government of Sindh's Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities hosted a session with the assistance of a local NGO, NOWPDP, where the current head of the Department, Syed Qassim Naveed Qamar, highlighted the steps the government was taking to employ persons with disabilities.

"[16] Pakistan is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signing the treaty on 25 September 2008 and ratifying it on 5 July 2011.