- Police use force as a faction of blind persons protests for job quota implementation
A faction of visually-impaired persons continued their protest against the government for a second day on Tuesday, calling for implementation of three per cent job quota reserved for the disabled and regularisation of their jobs in letter and spirit.
A group among the visually-challenged protesters had ended their sit-in after successful negotiations with District Coordination Officer Captain (r) Muhammad Usman and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Dr Haider Ashraf late Monday evening, but the resenting group continued with its protest near Kalma Chowk on Tuesday, bringing the operation of Metro bus service to a halt for some time.
“The government has been trying to pacify the blind people with hollow promises for the past two years and has done nothing substantial for implementing the reserved quota for blinds efficiently,” said one of the strikers, Muhammad Niaz of Attock district, while talking to Pakistan Today.
“I have been beaten up by police officials. They also tried to confiscate my cell phone because I was not willing to budge,” he said, and complained that the police used force to quell their just demonstration. Niaz further said that he also received a phone call from a police station in Attock asking him to call off the protest or a case would be launched against him.
According to Niaz, the Social Welfare Department is creating a rift between the leadership of blind persons by dishing out jobs to a ‘certain group’ of blind persons.
Another blind and a daily wager, Abdul Haseeb, told this scribe that the government had, a few months back, promised to regularise all the blind daily wagers, but it did not fulfill its promise forcing them to take to streets. He said some of his colleagues had been allegedly locked in their hotel by the police for fear of their blockading the track of Metro Bus once again.
The operations of Metro bus service remained suspended for nearly 12 hours on Monday when the protesters staged a sit-in near Kalma Chowk.
Ali John, another visually-impaired who works on contract for the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Lahore, said that the blind persons needed a sincere leadership for their cause. He said that as everyone among them wanted to be a leader, their cause was not served well. “In every protest, one has to compromise. We give and take, but our blind community has taken a harsh stance in this movement.” He however said that it was unfair of the Punjab government to call the Elite Force for the blind protesters since they were raising voice for their genuine demands.
Ahmad Shiekh, another protester who was recruited as a lecturer on open merit recently, said they were forced to hold demonstrations because the quota for them was not being implemented transparently. He said they were just handed “lollypops” and hollow promises.
Meanwhile, a Punjab government spokesperson, Zaeem Hussain Qadri, said that the government was taking the demands of the visually-impaired persons seriously and their issues were being sorted out as per the directions of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Flanked by Social Welfare Secretary Haroon Rafique and Special Education Secretary Ambreen Raza, he told a press conference that the government had increased the quota for the disabled from two to three per cent. According to him, 1,800 Khidmat cards have also been distributed among the disabled while another 0.2 million cards would be disbursed shortly.
