LAHORE:The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has strongly condemned the government’s decision to abolish the two percent public and private company employment quota for persons living with disabilities (PLWDs), by deleting Section 459 of the Companies Act 2017 through a presidential ordinance in May.
It said it was deeply ironic that the decision was made barely four months after the National Assembly passed the ICT Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2020, a bill in which the Minister for Human Rights took special interest.
It is more ironic still that the decision has been made even as the federal government claims to protect people’s right to work in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.
Persons living with disabilities, already marginalised, should be stripped of this protection so lightly is inexcusable, it said and reminded the government that Pakistan is a state party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and is therefore bound to comply with all its provisions on work and employment for PLWDs. It urged the government to reverse its decision on the job quota immediately and focus on providing fairer, better labour protection to Persons living with disabilities.