PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah’s judgment is a wake-up call for society and a verdict fixing liability on the government.
“The federal government has failed to show that efforts were made to bring disabled persons into mainstream. The government is bound to provide reasonable accommodation through assistive technology to protect and safeguard their fundamental rights,” the verdict states.
The exemplary judgment stressed for equal social and economic status for differently abled people by putting them in the fold of marginalised segments and directed the state to go the extra mile for their welfare.
This judgment deserves celebration in a democratic society aiming for equal status for a marginalised segment. The chief justice has already constructed court buildings across the province accessible for persons with disabilities.
For those with sympathy for marginalised segments, this judgment is a passionate and lovely reading. It chose terminology and phrases carefully so that physically-challenged people don’t find them offensive.
The constitution, the verdict states, calls for adequate provisions to safeguard the interests of minorities, backward and depressed classes. But the ‘depressed’ class has not been defined under the constitution.
“So in our society, where state does not provide any meaningful infrastructural, financial or social support for persons with disabilities, who are marginalised, underprivileged, lacking choice, autonomy and opportunity; resulting in limited access to employment and good quality of life, they stand deprived of the social and economic benefits enjoyed by other citizens and tend to live or survive on the margins of the society,” the judgment said.
The chief justice while allowing two CSS qualified visually-impaired candidates to join foreign services, said the constitution embodies universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It applies equally to persons with disabilities, guaranteeing them full enjoyment of their fundamental rights without discrimination.
Human dignity is freedom of the individual to shape an individual identity. This is the source of my view that at the core of human dignity is the autonomy of the individual. Human dignity is infringed if a person’s life, physical or mental welfare is harmed, the chief justice ruled.
The constitution abhors discrimination and holds that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law. Inherent in the Article 25 is the recognition that discrimination against any person on the basis of disability is a violation of the inherent dignity and worth of a human being. The Article 25 of the constitution promotes inclusiveness, effective participation and recognises human diversity in a society, the chief justice held.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2017.
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