PESHAWAR: Special persons have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to increase job quota for them from two to three per cent on the pattern of the Punjab province.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Pakistan Association of the Blind, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter President Qari Saad Noor said the government had even failed to implement the two per cent special job quota in various departments.

Flanked by the association’s office-bearers and blind persons, he said the highly-qualified disabled persons had been kept deprived of employment opportunities, adding hundreds of jobs were lying vacant in the education department, but the officials concerned were using delaying tactics to fill the vacancies.

Mr Noor said the government of Punjab had increased job quota for disabled people from two to three per cent and asked the KP government to follow the suit.

He said the blind persons, especially the educated ones, should be provided jobs in government schools, colleges, universities on the basis of their qualification.

Furthermore, he demanded that the disabled persons be appointed as class-IV employees or computer operators in the local government department.

He asked immediate end to the discriminatory policy introduced by the provincial education department towards the special persons.

Mr Noor said the disabled persons should be appointed from grade 6 to 15 on regular basis and, on contract basis, from grade 15 to 17. He said the government should ensure payment of Rs10,000 monthly stipend to the special people holding Master and M.Phil degrees. He also called for provision of health cards to all the disabled persons.

He warned that the special people would stage a sit-in outside the provincial assembly if the government didn’t accept their demands till second week of February.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2018