Disabled Parking in Islamabad and Karachi

There is no sense or awareness about disabled parking in Pakistan including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi or any other city. Today I was tutted at when parking in a disabled space. I had all these tubes hidden under my clothes, so I looked like a young, healthy person. But in reality, I still have a disability, despite choosing to hide my tubes. Friendly reminder that most disabilities are invisible.

I had someone block my car in because they didn’t think I was disabled, so I started listing off the reasons for having the sticker. About 2 minutes in, he got embarrassed and tried to back out. I told him he “was going to sit there until I Was Done” telling him about my injuries not being judgmental, genuinely curious, i don’t know how disabled parking works – i thought it was intended for people with mobility problems/needing more space for wheelchair access who can’t use a normal parking spot? A disability isn’t always visible! my mom has chron’s disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, and a few other autoimmune disorders. Her body constantly feels under fatigue. we need access to closer parking spaces for her. she may look normal for her age, but her body is not ok most days.

I have chronic regional pain syndrome and chronic pelvic pain where all my lower organs are pulled to the left in scar tissue my partners aunt told me two weeks ago because I don’t scream and cry and don’t have cancer im over reacting. I have been threatened by a man for using a handicapped spot in the USA. I am from Ontario Canada, my permit is in the window. A man came at me yelling, pointing and spitting at me. “You are not in Canada, you can’t use it here”. “You looking fine to me”. Kicking truck wheel. Well I know I am in Pakistan but that doesn’t make me abled.

Most people using handicap spaces are faking it. Especially when they don’t have a tag. Hard to tell. 99% of the time it is ignored. So many replies saying “Of course disabled people can park there but if they don’t have a placard then obviously they’re not disabled and shouldn’t be parking there”. What if the person just hasn’t been able to get a placard yet, but still needs the spot? Will you challenge them? Why people don’t mind there own business is beyond me. I tell my husband this all the time. Just because a person’s disability isn’t visually apparent doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I taught people w/ autism whose parents’ need handicap parking because walking through a parking lot can be life threatening.

This is absolutely correct. And we still get nasty looks sometimes, but I’m past the point of worrying about it. Too busy/tired trying to keep my child from running into traffic, to care about what other people think. I sometimes get dirty looks when I need to park close in the handicap spots because I don’t look disabled anymore. But those people don’t realize this is what I looked like a year ago, and the year prior I was completely wheelchair bound for almost 5 years. Ironically this “issue” occurs because so many who have no need for the space use them. I once approached a young lady for parking in a disabled space as she didn’t have her card in a visible place and she looked healthy. When she showed it to me, I felt awful, I apologised and she said thank you for sticking up for people with disabilities, now we are good friends.

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