PESHAWAR:(APP) In order to provide facilities and incentives to Senior Citizens of 60 years and above in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Senior Citizens Welfare Council has been established under Senior Citizens Act 2014, passed by the Provincial Assembly.
According to a notification issued by Social Welfare, Special Education and Empowerment of Women Department, Provincial Minister for Social Welfare will be chairman of Senior Citizens Welfare Council, Secretary Social Welfare will be vice chairman, two MPAs Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Jaffar Shah and Sahibzada Muhammad Halim, Muhammad Imad Ahmad, Habibullah Khan Khattak and Mian Shakir Hussain will be members of the Council.
Secretary Health, Secretary P&D, Secretary Finance, Secretary Local Government, Commissioner Peshawar Division and Director Social Welfare Department will be ex- officio members of the Council.
The Search and Scrutiny Committee in its meeting held with Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, after a lengthy consultation and review, had selected four members for the Council including Sahibzad Halim of Frontier Foundation, Muhammad Imad Ahmad and Habibullah Khan Khattak of IDEA, and Mian Shakir Hussain of Edge Demand Action (EDA).
These names were approved by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the Senior Citizens Act 2014, a person having age of sixty or above will be considered as senior citizen, who will be issued senior citizens card.
These citizens would be provided free facilities at libraries, parks and other recreational centers. Besides financial assistance, separate counters, medical wards and citizens homes would be established for senior citizens in hospitals.
Membership would also be given to these senior citizens in senior citizens institutions for which the provincial government would provide fund.