The Punjab Special Education Department has taken a significant step to bring identity related services directly to special children at their schools, acting on the direction of the Punjab Chief Minister. The initiative is intended to make it considerably easier for children with special needs to access essential documentation without requiring repeated visits to government offices, a process that has historically posed logistical and accessibility challenges for these students and their families.
Punjab Special Education Secretary Syed Shoaib Iqbal met with NADRA’s South Director General to discuss the specific arrangements needed to extend these facilities directly into special education schools across the province. According to a spokesperson for the Special Education Department, NADRA mobile buses and vans will visit these schools on a scheduled basis, with NADRA staff providing the required identity related services on site rather than requiring students to travel to a dedicated NADRA facility. This mobile based approach allows the registration process to come directly to the students, removing a logistical barrier that has often made routine government services more difficult to access for children with disabilities and their caregivers.
The spokesperson explained that this arrangement will save both special children and their parents from the burden of repeated visits to government offices, a change that could meaningfully reduce the time, effort, and potential difficulty involved in obtaining or renewing identity documentation for this specific student population. Given that navigating public buildings and standard registration counters can present additional challenges for children with various disabilities, delivering these services directly at school premises removes several practical obstacles that might otherwise discourage families from completing the necessary paperwork in a timely manner.
Syed Shoaib Iqbal confirmed that cooperation between the Punjab Special Education Department and NADRA will continue on an ongoing basis to ensure that special children consistently receive these services at their schools going forward, rather than treating this as a one time arrangement. He added that children with special needs will no longer need to visit NADRA offices in person to obtain their special cards, a change that formalizes school based service delivery as the standard approach for this group of students moving forward. The initiative reflects a broader effort within Punjab’s public sector to adapt standard government service delivery models to better accommodate the specific needs of vulnerable populations, using mobile infrastructure already available through NADRA to reduce friction for families who might otherwise face greater difficulty accessing routine identification services through conventional channels.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
