KARACHI: Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has directed chief secretary to ensure implementation of 5pc quota in jobs for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in government and private sector.

The chief minister said at a meeting with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPD) officials at CM House on Wednesday that labour department must ensure implementation of the job quota in letter and spirit.

DEPD Secretary Taha Farooqi said that his department was running four Centres for Autism Rehabilitation Training Sindh (at Karachi and Hyderabad and 66 Special Education and Rehabilitation centers in all six divisions where 4190 children were enrolled.

Rs2000 stipend each was deposited in the account of the child’s mother every month and all the children were provided pick and drop facility from their doorstep to school and back and were given lunch as well, he said, adding the children along with education and rehabilitation, were also trained in different trades.

Chief Secretary Dr Fakhre Alam said that the DEPD issued a Disability Assessment Certificate under which the PWDs were jobs under the reserved quota. Since 2021 to date, the DEPD had issued 34,488 such certificates, he said.

He said that all the government departments were implementing the five per cent quota in jobs for PWDs. By now, 1134 PWDs had been provided jobs in all the districts, he said.

The meeting was also attended by P&D Chairman Shakil Mangnejo, Secretary Finance Kazim Jatoi and others.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2023