LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to the provincial government and Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) on a petition challenging the use of the word “disabled” in official documents and statutes.
A lawyer, Humayon Faiz Rasool, assailed the alleged prejudice through a public interest petition to protect and ensure enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms equally by all differently abled people and to respect their dignity.
The lawyer argued before the court that Article 3 of the Constitution guaranteed elimination of exploitation of citizens and the word “disabled” used in statute and by the PPSC amounted to exploiting differently abled people.
He pointed out that the Sindh government had introduced the term “differently abled persons” in all its departments, but Punjab and PPSC, especially, were reluctant to eliminate the word “disabled”.
The lawyer stated that special persons had the same civil and political rights as any other human being. He said the word “disabled person” should be replaced as it was globally considered obsolete and insensitive to the cause of special persons; it was unfortunate that an institution like the PPSC had not been paying attention to this grave issue.
Advocate Rasool said it was also a demand of competitive examination aspirants that the term “disabled persons” be replaced with “differently abled persons” in advertisements and results of the PPSC.
The lawyer asked the court to allow his petition and declare the word “disabled” used by various departments in Punjab as unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional.
Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh heard the arguments and directed the respondents to submit replies by Nov 5.
DISQUALIFICATION PLEA: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought arguments on maintainability of a petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan for not meeting the criteria for a member of parliament prescribed in Article 62 (e) of the Constitution.
A citizen, Syed Azhar Abbas, moved the petition and argued before the court in person that Mr Khan had committed major sins in his past as he was also father of a girl namely Tyrian White born out of illegitimate relations with the late Seeta White.
The petitioner claimed that Mr Khan had secured guardianship of the girl through courts in the UK while international media had frequently reported about his illegitimate relations with Ms White.
He said as per Article 52 (e) of the Constitution, a member of the assembly must have adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices obligatory duties prescribed by Islam as well as abstains from major sins.
He asked the court to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the format of Panama Papers scam to find out veracity of the allegations on Mr Khan and declare him disqualified to hold a public office if charges were found true.
However, the petitioner urged the court to suspend the assembly membership of the prime minister till completion of the investigation by the JIT.
Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh asked the petitioner as to why the court should take up the matter of disqualification of a parliamentarian under its writ jurisdiction when election tribunals had been established to hear such issues.
At this the petitioner sought time to prepare his arguments and the judge adjourned hearing for next week.
Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2018
