Recognising abilities

The Punjab government’s ‘Empowerment of Persons with Different Abilities Act, 2021’ is obviously a law that is badly needed in a country which, according to the Pakistan Housing Survey of 2017, has about 31 million people living with disabilities of various kinds. Most of these people live in Punjab. Further surveys are now being conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and other groups. As the Lahore High Court noted, while hearing a petition filed on a public interest basis, the lawyers who had drafted the act and placed it before the Punjab Assembly deserve a great deal of credit for attempting to assist this group of persons. It may be noted that one of the petitioners Sana Khurshid is an activist who is herself disabled and has worked tirelessly for the rights of people suffering various kinds of disability. The problem is that while laws appear on our statute books with regularity, they are only very rarely enforced. In this matter, the case needs to be followed up at every step. We already have in place regulations that require government organisations and private corporations to hire people with disabilities in order to give them the right to earn a livelihood. This does not often happen and if it does it is only in rare cases. In this sense, the new law was badly required.

The next step is to obtain the correct figures and data. While there are some provisions for those with hearing and other disabilities at schools and other institutions, limited facilities exist for others with different kinds of challenges and abilities, and few are willing to offer them jobs. A few activists have achieved a great deal by pushing the law through and persuading the committee set up to read through it to turn it into reality. The next question is whether it can be fairly enforced across the province and then across the country. This is not an easy task as of now. But steps in the right direction are badly required. Everywhere in the world we have people who are differently abled or face various physical challenges who have achieved top positions in their line of work. There are many other examples of people who excel in their field despite major disability. Pakistan needs to move in the same direction and the law, which is now in place on the Punjab statute books, is one step in the direction that we need to move along.