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PM rules out quake orphans adoption
ISLAMABAD, Jan 30 : Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has reiterated the government’s decision not to allow the adoption of orphans belonging to the earthquake affected areas as they are an asset of the nation and their rehabilitation and security is the responsibility of the government.
“We will not take any decision which could have negative impact on their future,” he said while chairing a presentation by Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education on earthquake relief activities yesterday.
Earlier, Zobaida Jalal briefed the Prime Minister on various initiatives taken by her Ministry in the wake of the October 8 earthquake, said a press release.
The Prime Minister said that the main objective of the government is that every orphan, widow and disabled person is taken care of, for which coordination among the federal government, provincial government, local government and concerned NGOs are the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education.
Trauma management is also a major priority and the idea should be to get people ready to go back to normal life and think of the future, he said.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz asked the Ministry to be proactive in its approach, hold regular meetings with all those concerned with the relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation work and effectively monitor the relief efforts being done by all the relevant agencies.
The Ministry should also ensure the collection of accurate data from the field and make effective and coordinated strategy to deal with orphans, widows, paraplegics and quadriplegics, he said. The Prime Minister would hold meetings with the Ministry periodically to review the earthquake relief activities.