National summit amplifies voices of women with disabilities

July 02, 2026 (MLN): Pakistan held its first-ever National Summit of Women with Disabilities (WWDs) here on 29-30th June, bringing together women with disabilities from Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Punjab and Sindh.

The two-day Summit, themed “Advancing Voice, Leadership and Inclusion,” was convened by the Aawaz II Programme, funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and it’s community component is implemented by the British Council in 37 districts of KP and Punjab and the public sector component is implemented by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Programme’s community component in Sindh is implemented by Care International. The National Summit was hosted by the British Council in collaboration with UNFPA and the National Forum of Women with Disabilities (NFWWD).

The Summit drew on three years of grassroots work under Aawaz II, which since 2020 has worked across 37 districts and established Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of WWDs in 15 districts of KP and Punjab beginning in 2024.

These SIGs, comprising 247 members including 159 youth, provided safe spaces for women and girls with disabilities to identify the barriers they face and develop their own solutions.

The national gathering built on provincial summits held earlier this year in Peshawar and Lahore, positioning women with disabilities not as beneficiaries but as leaders and rights holders.

Officials and dignitaries who addressed the Summit included Mr James Hampson, Country Director, British Council Pakistan, Dr. Yasmin Zaidi, Team Lead of Aawaz II; Dr. Gulnara Kadyrkulova, Deputy Representative of UNFPA Pakistan; Mr. Sam Waldock, Development Director at the British High Commission; and Ms. Zahida Qureshi, an Aawaz II Provincial Forum Punjab member representing and staunch leader of the rights of women with disabilities in Pakistan.

“At the heart of the Charter is one powerful principle: ‘Nothing about us, without us’ women with disabilities must not simply benefit from policies and programmes; they must help design them, shape them and hold institutions accountable for delivering them.” Said Mr James Hampson in his remarks.

“You are all role models for women and girls with disabilities. You have brought change not only in your own lives but in the lives of thousands of other women with disabilities,” said Dr. Yasmin Zaidi, Team Lead, Aawaz II.

“Social development is only possible with the inclusion of vulnerable groups. UNFPA is focused on promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities,” said Dr. Gulnara Kadyrkulova, Deputy Representative, UNFPA.

“WWDs face double discrimination being women and being women with disabilities. Aawaz’s work has shown that when women with disabilities are provided with platforms, they not only identify their issues but also their solutions,” said Mr. Sam Waldock, Development Director, British High Commission in Pakistan.

Statistics presented during the Summit underscored the scale of exclusion facing persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Pakistan: only an estimated 0.3 percent of PWDs are registered with NADRA, and only 31% have ever attended school.

Speakers noted that gender, disability and poverty compound one another, leaving women with disabilities among the most invisible citizens in the country, while pointing to evidence that roughly 40 percent of Aawaz II’s community-level recommendations had already been incorporated into provincial budgets.

Over two days, the Summit featured panel discussions on the experiences of WWDs from KP and Punjab districts, including a session on views and impact from the field.

A dedicated session on gender-based violence (GBV) facing women with disabilities was also held.

The Summit also included a panel of provincial government officials from Balochistan, KP, Punjab and Sindh outlining current disability inclusion initiatives, including the Punjab government’s Himmat Card programme, KP’s distribution of more than 7,000 assistive devices and 2,000 electric wheelchairs, and calls for the early passage of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Bill.

A further session brought together representatives of FCDO, the European Union, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the NFWWDs to discuss sustaining the disability inclusion agenda once Aawaz II concludes.

“Persons with disabilities experience discrimination in access to information, services and opportunities. Laws and policies relating to health, education, gender-based violence and child protection are often silent on disability,” said Ms. Abia Akram, Chairperson, National Forum of Women with Disabilities.

The Summit culminated in the presentation of a National Charter of Demands, the product of consultations beginning in December 2024 and carried through provincial summits in KP and Punjab before being finalised in Islamabad.

The Charter was presented jointly by WWDs leaders including Ms. Zahida Qureshi, Executive Director, Society for Special Persons (SSP) Multan, articulating community-level demands and Ms. Abia Akram presenting policy-level demands, reflecting the Summit’s commitment to grassroots and national leadership working together.

Grounded in the Constitution of Pakistan and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Charter calls on government, civil society and society at large to act on five fronts.

These include ending intersecting discrimination against girls and women with disabilities in remote and underserved areas through behaviour change campaigns involving communities and duty bearers, and ensuring inclusive education through accessible schools, trained teachers and disability-inclusive curricula.

The Charter also calls for strengthening legal frameworks and guaranteeing representation of WWDs in decision-making bodies, including reserved seats in local government.

It further seeks to protect women with disabilities from gender-based violence through accessible police stations, courts and shelters and trained service providers, while advancing economic empowerment through dedicated vocational training quotas and enforcement of disability employment quotas.

“The time for action is now, so that no woman with a disability is left behind in Pakistan,” the Charter of Demands states.

Closing the Summit, Dr Yasmin Zaidi noted that only around 230,000 women with disabilities are currently registered with NADRA, against United Nations estimates that the global cost of excluding persons with disabilities runs into billions of dollars annually, far outweighing the modest cost of registration and inclusion.

She affirmed that the National and Provincial Fora of Women with Disabilities, along with the SIGs networks established under Aawaz II, remain available to work alongside government departments to carry the Charter’s demands forward. Representatives of UNFPA and the British Council, including Mr. James Hampson, Country Director of the British Council, thanked participants, government partners and donors, and reiterated calls for stronger national data on women with disabilities to inform future policy and census processes.

As the Aawaz II Programme draws to a close after years of work in KP and Punjab, organisers and participants described the Summit not as an ending but as the beginning of a new, WWDs-led phase of Pakistan’s disability rights movement, carried forward by the leadership, networks and government linkages the programme leaves behind.

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