ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that three committees had been formed in the province for enforcement of constitutional rights of people with disabilities.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, however, rejected reports furnished by the provincial governments and summoned the federal and provincial secretaries concerned to appear in person on Feb 14.

Taking up a case relating to the rights of persons with disabilities in the country, the apex court asked the top government officials to come up with a detailed action plan along with a time frame for implementing three per cent quota in jobs for the people with disabilities.

Justice Sheikh regretted that there were a number of laws in the country meant for protecting the rights of the people with disabilities, but none of them was being implemented. He said all such laws and rules should be declared invalid if governments did not want to implement them.

A report furnished by Navid Ahmed Shaikh, secretary of the Services General Administration and Coordination Department of Sindh, explained that the provincial government had established three committees — redressal of grievances committee, special medical boards at district hospitals and district recruitment committee — for the persons with different types of disabilities.

The report said advertisements in newspapers regarding notification of all the three committees would be published within seven days, while those regarding recruitment in different departments would be published within 15 days.

Likewise, the process of employment would be completed as per the directives of the Supreme Court. Moreover, the Sindh information department had been directed to contact Pemra (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) regarding usage of free air time for dissemination of information regarding the rights, privileges and redressal of grievances mechanism in radio and television, the report said.

Earlier, the Punjab government had informed the apex court that it had approved the Disabled Persons Management Information System for online registration and assessment of the persons with disability. The data so developed, it said, would help the people with disabilities in finding suitable jobs as per their capacities both in public and private sectors against the special job quota for the disabled.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2019