DAILY DAWN kARACHI-DATED:27/3/2014 SHC orders centre, Sindh govt to constitute councils for special people TAHIR SIDDIQUI KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the federal and Sindh governments to constitute national and provincial councils for special people and submit their respective reports within three months. A division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan was seized with a petition of eight special persons who sought court injunction for effective implementation of Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance, 1981. The petitioners, represented by Advocate Mohammed Vawda, impleaded the chief secretary, social welfare secretary, federal government, executive district officer and district health officer of Hyderabad as respondents. The petitioners’ counsel stated that the federal government was to constitute a national council for disabled persons under the law. He said that the federal government purportedly constituted the national council in violation of the laws as Section 3 of the Ordinance was not followed. The counsel said under the law the national council shall comprise secretary of the ministry of health and social welfare, a representative each of the three armed forces, manpower division, water and power ministry, petroleum and natural resources ministry, industries division, planning division, administrator-general of Zakat, four federal government nominees and others. He said that the purported national council was not constituted by the federation in accordance with the ordinance. Similarly, he said that each provincial government was to constitute a provincial council. Advocate Vawda said that the ordinance was originally in the federal ambit, but later the social work department was devolved to provinces by virtue of the 18th amendment. He said that the Punjab government enacted the Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) (Amendment) Act, 2012, but the Sindh government was yet to pass a law on the subject matter of the ordinance. The counsel said that not less than one per cent of the persons employed by an establishment shall be disabled persons under Section 10 of the ordinance. He said that the petitioners were struggling to find gainful employment for years, and to such end, applied for a number of jobs/positions under the Disability Quota. The counsel stated that “Establishment”, as defined by Section 2(f) of the ordinance, included government, commercial, and industrial establishments. “The Disability Quota, therefore, extends not only to the government establishments, but also to private commercial and industrial establishments.” On Tuesday, the provincial law officer filed comments on behalf of the chief secretary. After perusing the report the court observed that perhaps various provisions of the Ordinance were not complied with. “We, therefore, direct the Respondent No 4 [federal government] to comply with the provisions of Section 3 of the said ordinance in its letter and spirit and to furnish a detailed and comprehensive report as to what action has been taken in this regard within a period of three months”, the court ordered. It also ordered the provincial government to comply with the Sections 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the ordinance in its letter and spirit and furnish a detailed and comprehensive report. The court directed its office to fix the next hearing of the case after three months.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 10:38:33 +0000
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