ISLAMABAD: On Down Syndrome Day, a large number of children suffering from the disease gathered at theNationalPress Cluband demanded that the disease be declared a disability.

The participants also held a token hunger strike to draw the attention of the decision makers in this regard.

Babies born with Down syndrome usually have flat facial features, small head and ears, short neck, bulging tongue, eyes that slant upward and poor muscles.

Representative of Jalal Foundation Jalal Akbar, who came from Jhelum, while talking to Dawn said that the United Nations has declared the Down syndrome as a special disease.

`We have thousands of children, suffering from the disease, all over the country but they are not getting even basic facilities. My own child, 14-yearold Bilal Dar, is also suffering from the same disease so I collected all the information about the disease,` he said.

`Down syndrome children require physiotherapy, speech therapy, psychotherapy, medical and educationalfacilities which cannot be provided without the support of the government. They need much more time of their parents, as compared to the normal children,` he said.

`If a special child is born, in a family, mothers cannot do jobs and even itbecomes difficult for the whole family to participate in social events because children need special care,` he said.

Mr Jalal said that he was also trying to contact the politicians to convince them to play their role for the legislation.