LHC seeks reply on jobs for visually impaired

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza has sought a reply from the provincial government on a plea against non-allocation of quota for visually impaired persons in vacancies of legal inspectors in the police.

The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Syed Abdur Rehman Hashmi, is also visually impaired. The petitioner cited as respondents the Punjab government, inspector general of police (IGP) and other officials.

The petitioner implored the court that it seemed that the space for the visually impaired people was being reduced through different tactics and they were being deprived of their basic rights.

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“It is a sheer violation of the law that had bestowed the blind persons with their quota,” he said. He implored the court that as per the law, there should be allocation of three per cent quota for the visually impaired in all recruitments, but they had been deprived of the right for the post.

He contended that the Punjab Public Service Commission had advertised vacancies of inspector legal (grade-16) in newspapers but no quota had been allocated for the visually impaired for the post. “It is tantamount to keeping at bay the blind persons from the government sectors by depriving them of their right to work,” he said.

The petitioner added that it was also an injustice that the quota for people with special needs had been ignored, while that of the women and minorities had been normally allocated.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2020.