DERA GHAZI KHAN, Aug 7: The Education Department has allocated and advertised 10 posts of lab in-charge for disabled people after action on the complaint of a disabled man.

Complainant Rizwan Jalil Shah, a disabled man from Dera Ghazi Khan, complained to the Punjab ombudsman that the project director for the IT/Computer Science Teacher and Computer Labs Project, Lahore, had not recruited even a single disabled person to his project despite the fact that all organisations were required to recruit disabled people against two per cent quota reserved for them by the government. He asked the ombudsman to direct the project director to recruit him to the project under the reserved quota.

In his department response, the project director told the ombudsman that the quota reserved for disabled people applied only district-wise and that the project had no post for disabled people because of a limited number of seats.

In his decision, the ombudsman rejected the project director’s contention and upheld the plaintiff’s argument. He said that the quota reserved for disabled people had to be applied not district-wise, but organisation-wise. He said that 515 posts were advertised at the provincial level and the recruitment committee was headed by the Punjab education secretary therefore the posts could not be divided district-wise. He directed the education secretary to work out two percent quota for disabled people and recruit them in accordance with instructions issued by the Services & General Administration Department on April 15, 2004.

In its compliance report, the Education Department informed the ombudsman that 10 posts had been created for disabled people at the project and they had been advertised in national newspapers. The project director has received 17 applications, which are being processed, the department added.