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СпутникиРНSpaceXРоскосмосNASAImagine walking into a government hospital with a fever, chest pain, or a child who won’t stop crying, and having no way to tell the doctor what is wrong. There is no interpreter. The staff don’t sign. You write on a scrap of paper if you can, you point, and you hope. Then you leave with a prescription you may not fully understand, for a diagnosis nobody properly explained.
For many deaf and hard-of-hearing Pakistanis, this isn’t hypothetical. It is an ordinary visit to the doctor.
I’ve spent the last few years working with the Sir Syed Deaf Association (SDA).
But the moment that stayed with me came this August. At a workshop in Karachi, a young woman tried to ask me for something, and I couldn’t understand her. My first instinct was to wonder what app could translate for me. Only later did I realise how telling that was: I was reaching for a workaround instead of learning her language. That is exactly what we ask deaf patients to do every day.
The law isn’t the problem. Implementation is.
What struck me most as I learned more was that Pakistan does not lack disability laws. The Sindh Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2018 already recognises the right of persons with disabilities to accessible healthcare. Pakistan has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Pakistan Sign Language even has statutory recognition, but only under a law about broadcast media. Nothing requires a hospital, a polling station, or a government office to make sure a deaf citizen can actually be understood.
So the rights exist on paper. They just don’t reach the examination room.
That is why, on 12 August, I filed a petition before the High Court of Sindh asking for these existing protections to be implemented in public healthcare facilities across the province, including sign-language interpreters and other reasonable accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients. I was fortunate to have legal guidance from SMMS Legal (Sajeel Mirza Mann & Shah), who helped me through a process I could never have navigated alone.
The ask is simple. A deaf patient should be able to walk into a government hospital, explain what is wrong, and understand the treatment they are given. Access to healthcare is a basic right, and it should come with the same standard of care and dignity for everyone.
Rights are one half. Opportunity is the other.
Working with SDA also taught me that legal protection alone doesn’t change someone’s life if they still can’t find training or work. So alongside the petition, much of my summer went into partnerships.
I helped facilitate agreements between SDA and three organisations: the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF), ConnectHear, and the Network of Organizations Working with Persons with Disabilities (NOWPDP).
The PSDF partnership sits under its upcoming UMEED – Skills for Inclusion Program, which aims to offer accessible vocational training, including digital, AI and emerging technology skills. SDA’s role is to identify eligible deaf candidates and bring its sign-language expertise to the programme, so that training is usable in practice and not just “inclusive” in a brochure.
With ConnectHear, the focus is employment readiness, and it turned into action quickly. On 15 August, we ran a vocational workshop for deaf women from communities across Karachi. Seema Haque, an Indus Valley graduate, former Lead Textile Designer at Khaadi and SDA volunteer, taught participants to design and make leaf-inspired tote bags for potential sale. Organising that session with Sophia Shah from SDA, and watching a room full of women sign to each other about colour and pattern, was the best day of my summer.
The NOWPDP partnership, signed in Islamabad, begins with domestic stitching and dressmaking training, with the aim of connecting participants to jobs through NOWPDP’s partner organisations or supporting them to start their own businesses.
What still needs to happen
None of this is finished. A petition is a request, not a result. An MoU is an intention, not a job. The real test is whether, a year from now, a deaf woman in Karachi can see a doctor and be understood, and whether the women at that workshop are earning from what they make.
There is also a bigger shift we need. Deafness in Pakistan is still largely treated as a charity issue rather than a question of rights and access. Hospitals, employers and government offices need to see sign language not as a special favour but as basic infrastructure, as ordinary as a ramp or a signboard.
I don’t have all the answers, and I’m still learning sign language myself. But I’ve learned that change doesn’t always wait for the right age or the right title. Sometimes it starts with noticing who isn’t being heard, and deciding to do something about it.
The article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Business Recorder or its owners.
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