ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday performed the groundbreaking of Center of Excellence for Autism at the Rehabilitation Center for Children with Development Disorders in Islamabad, promising to mobilize all resources to benefit children with specialized needs.
According to the non-profit Autism Society of Pakistan (ASP), around 350,000 children in the country have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave, though there is no reliable official data to corroborate this figure.
Autism spectrum disorders range from Asperger syndrome, a relatively mild communication disorder, to severe autism in which patients communicate little or not at all with others and may display severely debilitating behaviors such as rocking or banging their heads. About 40 percent of children with autism do not speak at all.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, the prime minister said this Center of Excellence for Autism would be established in one year, adding that it is the collective responsibility all Pakistanis to support children with autism.
“It is the duty of the government to mobilize all available resources for the nation’s special children and enable them to stand on their own feet as productive members of society,” Sharif said.
