ISLAMABAD, May 26: Pakistan Association of Visually Handicapped Persons has sought 100 per cent employment for special persons in the upcoming fiscal budget and demanded payment of a minimum of Rs3,000 per month to those who could not be adjusted till they find a job.

Talking to Dawn, the president of the association, Khalid Mahmood Bajwa, said the two per cent quota in government jobs was not being strictly observed. He said the total number of federal government employees was around 380,000 and the quota for special persons comes to 7,600. He however said the number of special persons currently working in the federal government departments was much lower than that.

He was of the view that all government departments should be asked to submit a report at the end of every calendar year providing details about the total strength of the employees and explaining if some post under the two per cent quota was still vacant. He said the head of the department should be held responsible in case of non-observance of the quota.

He was of the view that special persons should be exempted from levy of income tax. He said salaries of disabled government employees should be exempted from deduction of benevolent fund. Benevolent fund is deducted at the rate of two per cent of the basic pay for the welfare of government employees.

Mr Bajwa said special persons in government service should be given encouragement allowance of 50 per cent of the pay. He pointed out that these people could not do part-time work and wholly depend on the salaries.

He said the mothers of special children under 18 years of age should be given Rs2,000 care allowance to bring up children on the pattern of western countries.

He said special persons should be allowed to invest in welfare account in the national saving schemes on high interests as had already been allowed to widows and senior citizens.

Mr Bajwa said though the facility of importing duty free car was available to the physically handicapped persons, the same was not applicable on the visually impaired persons. He said the facility should also be extended to visually impaired persons as they could engage a driver. He said the total number of special persons in the country was 3.7 million out of which 300,000 were visually impaired.

He appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to ensure that these suggestions were included in the budget proposals, to make the budget truly representative of all the segments of the society. He stressed that special persons needed special attention and noted that these steps would help improve living standard of the special persons.