ISLAMABAD:The departments in Pakistan have started implementing a two percent job quota for people with disabilities at all federal ministries, a senior official at the human rights ministry said.
Human Rights Watch estimates that the number of people living with various intellectual and physical disabilities in Pakistan, a country of 220 million, varies from 3.3 million to 27 million.
Pakistani law requires that 2 percent of people employed by an establishment be “disabled persons.” A Supreme Court ruling last year obliged the federal and provincial governments to take steps to realize equal participation of people with disabilities in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Pakistan ratified in 2011.
“On the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, establishment division has formally instructed all ministries, divisions, attach departments and commissions working under federal government to strictly implement 2 percent quota of disabled persons in jobs,” Human Rights Ministry Director General Muhammad Arshad said in an interview with Arab News.
He said, “Work has been started to implement this by providing jobs to disabled persons in all federal government departments in Pakistan.”
He said, “For this purpose, the government has also established a new council, Council for the Rights of Disabled Persons, which is working on it and following it with all federal ministries.”