Every department now bound to give disabled persons 2pc jobs

Karachi
The Sindh Assembly unanimously adopted a bill on Friday for providing employment and rehabilitating disabled persons in the province.
The bill envisages constitution of a council with social welfare secretary as its chairman for the rehabilitation of disabled persons.
As its members, the council would members the labour, special education and rehabilitation secretaries, representatives of health, planning and development, Auqaf and religious affairs and women development departments, the managing-director of the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority, officials of the chamber of commerce and industry and registered trade unions and four persons engaged in welfare work for disabled persons.
On a suggestion from MPA Sumeta Afzal of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an amendment was incorporated into the bill, which envisaged that the council would also include two MPAs to be nominated by the speaker.
and private) establishment should provide at least two percent of its jobs to disabled persons.
The ninth clause of the legislation says: “An establishment which does not employ a disabled person as required by section 8 (two per cent compulsory job quota for special persons), shall pay into the (govt disabled persons rehabilitation) funds each month the sum of money it would have paid as salary or wages to the disabled persons had been employed.”
The proposed council would ensure the provision of concessions in admission fees and relief of a 75 percent cut in the tuition fee in government-run educational institutions to disabled persons. It would also ensure the provision of health insurance and free treatment at government hospitals and dispensaries for them.
The bill passed after its title was changed from the Sindh Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Bill-2014 to the Sindh Differently-Abled Persons (Employment, Rehabilitation, and Welfare) Bill-2014.
The original title was considered to be insensitive towards physically and mentally challenged persons. Suggestions to change the title came from Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and MPA Sumeta Afzal Syed.
The finance minister said that at the time of the introduction of the bill on January 22 he had suggested that the words “disabled persons” in the title should be replaced as the term was globally considered obsolete and insensitive to the cause of special persons, but it was unfortunate that the bill’s title was still unchanged when it was tabled again. He proposed that the words “disabled persons” should be replaced with “differently-abled persons”.
The Muttahdia lawmaker suggested that the word “welfare” should be added to the title of the bill so that the proposed law could provide a holistic approach to the cause and issues of physically and mentally challenged persons.
She said the words “disabled persons” should be replaced with “persons with special needs”, but later she agreed to Shah’s suggestion that “differently-abled persons” should be part of the title of the proposed law.
The bill was moved in the house for clause-by-clause consideration by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro.
In his introductory remarks, he said the proposed law was aimed at enabling the disabled persons of the province to lead their lives as normal persons while availing themselves of all due privileges and benefits as guaranteed by the constitution.

Poor fire brigade service
Responding to a call attention notice by MQM lawmaker Kamran Akhtar regarding recurring fire incidents in Karachi, Information and Local Government Minister Sharjeel Memon conceded that the fire brigade service being provided to the city was insufficient keeping in view the city’s population.
He said the chief minister had released funds to the local government department for the procurement of new fire tenders, but the judiciary had granted an order staying the purchase of fire tenders after a petition challenged the move.
The he government would go ahead with the purchase of new tenders as and when the stay order was vacated, he added.
Responding to another call attention notice raised by MQM MPA Heer Soho complaining of slow utilisation of funds for development schemes of the education department, Senior Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said that for the current financial year 2014-15 the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for education department stood at Rs10.07 billion. Of that budget, Rs2.56 billion had been released and Rs1.42 billion utilized till December 31, 2014 showing 55 percent utilisation of the released funds.
He said more funds would be released in the third quarter of the current financial year, improving the utilisation of development funds for the education sector.