New policy brief highlights rights of specially-abled

Former senator calls for treating these people as equal citizens

ISLAMABAD: There is a tendency in Pakistan to approach specially-abled people from the charity angle but few move towards treating these people as equal citizens.

This was stated by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Secretary General Farhatullah Babar at a policy brief “Empowerment of Persons Living with Disabilities: Democratic, Rights-Based and Inclusive Legislation”, launched by the Potohar Mental Health Association (PMHA) with support of the Federation Handicap International in the federal capital the other day.

The policy brief is a review of the recently-tabled “The Act Right of Persons with Disability Bill, 2018”.

Babar said that often people look at the specially-abled with sympathy and then shake off their conscience by donating or doing some charity, but that is often the extent of what they do.



“What is required is to move beyond this behaviour by treating people living with disabilities as equal citizens, whose challenges on the basis of their disability should be minimal,” the former senator said.

This can only be made possible if the proposed legislation on people living with disabilities adopts a rights-based approach in its working, he said, adding that there was also a need to update the definition of “disability” in the law to bring it in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which calls for the effective participation of specially-abled people on an equal basis with others.

Furthermore, Babar said that it should be marked that no one has the right to make or pass judgment on a person's disability or its extent and on that basis, exclude them from resources and services.

PMHA Chief Executive Zulqurnain Asghar said there is a need for categorization and to identify which facility is important for different types of disabilities to mitigate a variety of barriers.

The law, he said, must create an autonomous commission on disability rights comprising three people, instead of the proposed current council which includes government functionaries.

“Representation should also be given to people who are transgender and minorities living with disabilities,” he said.

The policy brief further called for increased political will in mainstreaming persons living with disabilities by making them part of party decision making bodies and nominating them to the national, provincial assemblies and local bodies.



Federation Handicap International Programme Head Waheed Shah emphasised that the outdated legislation specially-abled people in Pakistan employs the charity and medical model in its definition, which is also still reflective in the attitudes, mindsets and behaviour of society.

Largely, there is no comprehensive law to safeguard their constitutional and fundamental rights. There is a need to pass comprehensive legislation aligned with UNCRPD and SDGs, he said.

In this context, Shah said that it was heartening that the law has been proposed.

However, participants at the launch noted the bill is too generic and lacks specifics.

The language used as of now can leave it at the mercy of the government in power for instance, in section 6, there are no specifications regarding special measures for women living with disabilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2019.