By our correspondent.
MIRPUR: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that help to orphaned and poor children was a religious obligation and at the same time, a social responsibility.
“It is the basic responsibility of the state and well off people to provide an infrastructure of care to enable vulnerable citizens to flourish socially and economically on an equal basis,” he asserted.
He expressed these views during a meeting of the Board of Governors of Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust (KORT) here on Friday. The President said that the children who have lost one or both of their parents, had been facing unfavourable conditions, and it is the religious and social responsibility of all of us to fulfil their education and health needs.
The AJK president said that Kashmir Orphan Relief Trust headed by Chaudhry Mohammad Akhtar besides looking after hundreds of children is providing quality education and health facilities to them.
“The Kashmir Orphan Trust is a role model for not only Azad Kashmir but the whole of South Asia as well,” he declared. Appreciating Chaudhry Mohammad Akhtar and his team for their excellent social work, Sardar Masood Khan assured that he in his personal capacity as well as through the state government would continue to extend all possible cooperation to this organization.
Earlier in a briefing, the state president was told that besides establishing water filtration plants in different areas of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to provide potable water, the Trust had distributed 1,000 wheelchairs to the people with disabilities while it constructed 143 housing units for quake-hit families in Mirpur and surrounding areas.
Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the Trust had provided relief items to the poor and financially starved families in all districts of Azad Kashmir particularly the residents of the villages located close to the Line of Control and helped different hospitals improve the treatment facilities.
About the future plans, the AJK president was told that on a pattern of Orphan Trust Mirpur, a complex was being built in Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where education and boarding facilities will be provided to 350 children while construction of the KORT University and state of the art KORT Hospital in Mirpur, and the construction of a restroom in Islamabad were among the future priorities.
On this occasion, the AJK advised the KORT and other social groups to consider the utilization of modern technologies in the health and education sectors.
