KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain has stressed the need for launching an official campaign aimed at collecting reliable statistics concerning the autistic children and others afflicted with the disease for setting up their rehabilitation centers.
He said this on the occasion of World Autism Day being observed across the globe on April 2, said a statement issued by MQM here on Monday.
Altaf also expressed his solidarity with autistic children, their parents and other victims of the disease.
He advocated the need for making autistic children useful citizens of the society, saying that such a goal could be achieved by launching an awareness campaign about autism on government level.
In this regard, the MQM chief said that it was imperative to organise training workshops for doctors and paramedical staff at government and private hospitals so that the autism among children could be diagnosed in its early stage for proper treatment and their parents could be guided accordingly.
He said that following the footsteps of developed countries, all out efforts should be made for providing admissions to autistic children in schools, besides ensuring that arrangements were made to impart training to autistic children in different skills under the supervision of trained people.
He said that "for a civilized society it was imperative upon us to accept special children with an open heart and with love".