he Punjab Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2022, enacted on December 19, 2022, is meant to protects and promote the rights of persons with disabilities. However, its implementation leaves much to be desired.

The Council on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, tasked with the crucial task of implementing this Act, does not have a web presence.

It took almost a year for the Directorate General, Social Welfare Department, to issue a notification to operationalise Section 24 of the Punjab Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2020, on November 16, 2023. The notification requires all deputy commissioners in the province to constitute District Welfare and Rehabilitation Units to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities. Led by the deputy commissioner as chairperson, the units comprise representatives from various district government departments to undertake collaborative initiatives to uplift PWDs. Furthermore, persons with different disabilities are also members of these units.

As outlined in the notification, the unit is tasked with crucial responsibilities such as collection of disability data, facilitating employment and training of PWDs, their referral for medical treatment and financial assistance, maintaining a comprehensive database of PWDs and collaborating with suitable entities for their rehabilitation.

The responsibility for the protection and promotion of the rights of PWDs, who often live in abject poverty owing to societal and physical barriers, falls on public bodies.

Bureaucratic inertia is the greatest hindrance to the realisation of the rights of PWDs, even with access to information and disability laws in place. The Punjab access to information law has been on the statute books for a decade now. Even so, the Social Welfare Department has scant information about steps being taken under the Punjab disability law on its website. It cannot receive requests for information via email.

In this regard, both the Punjab Information Commission and the Social Welfare Department Punjab have failed the PWDs. How else can one explain the absence of the Council on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the web, even when the Punjab Information Commission is vested with suo motu powers to ensure implementation of the provisions of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act, 2013.

Bureaucratic inertia is the greatest hindrance to the realisation of the rights of persons with disability, even with access to information and disability laws in place.

The notification to constitute District Welfare and Rehabilitation Units came into public view, not as a part of proactive disclosure of information under Section 4 of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act, 2013, but as an informal disclosure by public officials to disability rights activists. If the situation persists, implementing the disability law will remain a pipedream. The law can only be implemented with the active participation of the PWDs. It requires sustained and collaborative efforts to operationalise any law and make it useful for the intended beneficiaries. As a starting point, the Council on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities must proactively place copies of all meeting minutes on its website to ensure public participation. Furthermore, if it has developed a monitoring mechanism to ensure the implementation of specific sections of the Punjab Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2022, the same should be made available on its website.

Unprecedented developments in assistive technologies and the changing nature of jobs have opened up new venues for persons with disabilities to earn their livelihoods on an equal basis with others. The disability law makes it binding for organisations, both in the public and private sectors, to ensure recruitment of three per PWDs in their workforce. Failure to comply with this provision obligates the organisations to pay an equivalent amount to the Persons with Disabilities Rehabilitation Fund, established under the law.

As things stand, there is virtually no information available as to how many PWDs have been employed in compliance with this law or the amount

deposited in the Persons with Disabilities Rehabilitation Fund. Similarly, there is no information about developing access standards and guidelines for the removal of barriers to inclusive access.

The Act contains provisions to protect and promote the rights of PWDS. However, if the situation does not improve, it risks becoming yet another law rendered useless owing to bureaucratic inertia.

The writer is a former federal information commissioner and author of Disabled by Society. He can be reached at zahid@cpdi-pakistan.org. His X handle: @XahidAbdullah