SOHAIL NASIR, J. Helen Keller[1] born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama[2] at the age of 19 months, because of an unknown illness lost her ability to hear and see but went on to become a world famous speaker and author. She was an advocate for the people with disabilities, aimed numerous other causes. She traveled to twenty-five different countries giving motivational speeches about deaf people's conditions. On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson[3] awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom[4].
2. Tofiri Kibuuka is a Norwegian athlete (Ugandan by birth) was one of the first bind people to ascend successfully to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in 1968[5].
3. Esref Armagan (born 1953) a painter of Turkish origin was born without sight, who trained himself to write and paint. He has painted using oil paints for roughly thirty five years[6].
4. Yousaf Saleem is the first ever blind civil judge in Pakistan joined the service in 2018. He is gold medalist of University of the Punjab LLB (Honors) program in 2014. He topped in written judicial examination out of 6,500 candidates in 2017. He has also been awarded presidential award[7].
4. Selma Saleem[8] Pakistani Civil Servant is the first visually impaired woman employed by the Federal Government and is part of the country's Diplomatic Service. She is the Second Secretary on Human Rights for Pakistan is Permanent Mission to United Nations in Geneva[9].
5. Peggy Pinder Elliot[10] born in 1953, attended regular schools until the middle of the ninth grade when her eye condition was diagnosed as irreversible declined into total blindness. Without losing the hopes, she struggled and worked in the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) with impressive professional career. She held office in the NFB students division in Lowe[11] and Connecticut,[12] the President of the National Students Division and President of the National Federation of the Blind of Lowe. She was also appointed as Chairman of the National Federation of the Blind Scholarship Committee. In her keynote address[13] (The blind teacher and liability) presented at the Western Regional Conference of the National Association of Blind Educators on (Thursday, April 12, 1984), in Sacramento, California she said:-- "As the Chairman of that committee I have received many, many applications from blind students all over the country. Those of you who come to our national convention this summer are going to be delighted and pleased with the quality of blind students in this country and the variety of things that blind students are doing. You are going to be delighted just as I am with the achievements and the distinctions that blind students display. But there is another thing that blind students have displayed in the applications that I have received, and to me it's a sad thing and a disappointment. Blind students in this country, based on the applications that I have gotten, predominantly want to go into the field of teaching and counseling. If you take the student population as a whole in this country, it's not true that aspirations run to teaching and counseling at the same level that it does for blind people. We the blind, far more than the general population, seek to go into one of these two fields of teaching or counseling the blind. What does that say about us as blind people and about our aspirations? Expectations, as indicated by blind students around the country, are that the best thing we can do with our lives is to teach other blind students.
The fact that so many blind Applicants want to teach and to work with blind people indicates not a dedication to the blind community, but a genuine and deeply held belief that we aren't welcome elsewhere and that if weary, we're going to fail, we're going to get hurt, and so we may as well not even make the effort. That's the first thing that I wanted to say to this conference of blind educators, and that is we ourselves cannot afford to restrict ourselves to teaching ourselves.
Blind people in this country have talents and abilities and aspirations and something to give to our entire community, state, and nation. We shouldn't simply start out and expect that the only thing we can do is to teach one another" (Emphasized)
6. The world is in search and hunting for best of the best environment and opportunities for the persons with disabilities[14] whereas (still it is said that the eligibility for such persons in the area of teaching are those, who can read, speak, write and can also use blackboard. We feel pain, when an exception is taken that the blind, deaf and dumb candidates cannot enter in the race, because of a different ability, for which they are not at fault, but it's a God Package with which they have to live till the time they take their last breath or they regain their ability to see, hear and speak. The State functionaries are responsible to allow them to compete with those who are blessed with all abilities, otherwise the talent in the world was not supposed to be at the positions and with the distinctions earned by the persons with disabilities.
7. Muhammad Kamran Jamil (respondent) is one of the persons with disability (blind), who in pursuant to an advertisement for the posts of Elementary School Educators (ESE) issued by the Education department/appellants, applied and cleared the test through National Testing Service (NTS). He also passed the interview but could not get the appointment letter with the objection that he had disability to see. He approached this Court on two occasions through independent writ petitions which were referred one after the other to the Complaint Redressal Cell (CRC) and the Secretary Schools Education Department Government of the Punjab Lahore respectively but with no positive outcome in his favour. He therefore, made a third attempt by knocking the door of this Court on the strength of writ petition (15166 of 2019) which after contest by appellants was allowed vide a judgment dated 03.03.2020 passed by the learned Single Judge in Chamber and the said decision has been impugned through the instant Infra Court Appeal (ICA).
8. Learned counsel for appellants even before us are with the same arguments that the blind, deaf and dumb candidates are not eligible against this post of teaching as they cannot monitor and supervise the children aged 3 to 16 years by using blackboards, checking home works, conducting examination and evaluating work of students. He further maintains that the discretion lies with the department to accept or reject the application of a person with disability keeping in view the nature of the job.
9. The appeal has been opposed by learned counsel for respondent.
10. During the course of arguments before the learned Single Judge in Chamber appellants had taken the shelter of a report dated 02.03.2020 by maintaining that the blind, deaf and dumb candidates are not eligible against the quota reserved for persons with disability and when learned Single Judge in Chamber confronted learned counsel for appellants with paragraph No. 3, he was not able to convince the Court that how said policy was a hurdle or hindrance for the appointment of respondent. The said paragraph of the report is as under:-- "In compliance with the judgment dated 20.06.2019 passed by Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan in constitution petition No. 64 of 2013 etc, School education department has recruited different categories under disable quota, 77 blind (non-teaching) have been recruited in different Districts of Punjab and 58 (19 female & 39 males) blinds persons are working (recruited) against teaching posts in school education department."
11. It is important to mention here that respondent is duly registered with Provincial Council for Rehabilitation of disabled persons being blind and he was also issued with a disability certificate from the said Council.
12. A State cannot deviate from its fundamental duty to do, at every level what it can, for the grooming and promoting the persons with disabilities so as to dislodge the impression from their minds that they are oppressed and neglected not only by the State but by the Society also. The apex Court in Malik Ubaidullah's case[15] dealing the question of rights of persons with disabilities under the heading "Medical and Social model was pleased to observe as under:- "One of the major duties faced by the persons with disabilities is that employers have the erroneous assumption that these people will probably under per form in most areas of their duties something which is actually not the case. Another plausible issue is that when the majority of work places are not made accessible to people with disabilities, employers may feel that they will have to make' an unwarranted investment to provide Facilities for people with disabilities and some do not believe in the employment potential of such people"'
13. The Honourable Supreme Court under the heading "Rights based approach towards disability" was further pleased to observe as under:--- "The human rights model or rights-based model embodies the values of principles of dignity, respect, equality and social justice to the disabled. The UN Convention of the rights of persons with disabilities of 2006 ("CRPD" or "Convention') created a binding framework for the rights-based model of the disability law. Disabled persons by virtue of being a human have the right to enjoy life, liberty, equality, security and dignity"
14. Under the heading "DISABILITY AND OUR CONSTITUTION" the apex Court was further pleased to observe as under:-- "Our Constitution, as a whole, does not distinguish between a person with or without disabilities. It recognizes inherent dignity of a human being; equal and inalienable rights of all the people as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. Every person is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind. It, therefore, applies equally to persons with disabilities, guaranteeing them full enjoyment of their fundamental rights without discrimination.
The triangular construct of the right to life, dignity and equality under the Constitution provides a robust platform for mainstreaming persons with disabilities. The purpose of the Constitutional rights to human dignity is to realize the Constitutional value of the human dignity; to realize a person's humanity; his free will; the freedom to shape his life and fulfill himself It is a person's freedom to write his life story. Such vibrancy and vitality is the hallmark of a living Constitution in the democracy"
15. The Honourable Supreme Court on the question that if a particular post is not fit for a person with disability, was pleased to say that the establishment may shift the disability quota and adjust it against another post in the establishment so that the overall disability quota is not disturbed and maintained all the times.
16. Reverting to the case in hand finally, the respondent not only passed written test but he was also successful in interview therefore, the learned Single Judge in Chamber rightly observed that the department should have considered the possibility of providing necessary technical and human support to ensure that respondent was able to perform as an Educator and was not discriminated on the ground of disability. We add that if Louis Braille[16] who was blinded at the age of three as a result of an accident in his short life time (1809-1852) began developing a system of tactile code[17] that could allow blind people to read and write quickly, why the State in 2021 which is the era of modern technology cannot facilitate the blinds in a way as observed by the learned single judge in chamber.
17. In view of above this appeal merits dismissal and we declare so.
1. https://en.wikipedia.orq/wiki/Helen Keller
2. Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States
3. The 36th President of the United States, (1963 to 1969)
4. One of the United States' two highest civilian honors
5. https://en.wikiDedia.org/wiki/Tofiri Kibuuka
6. https://en.wikiDedia.org/wiki/E%C5%9Fref Arma%C4%9Fan
7. https://en.wikinedia.org/wiki/Youiaf Saleem
8. She is the sister of Yousaf Saleem Civil Judge
9. https://en.wikipedia.ona/wiki/Saima Saleem
10. http://wvvw. blind.net/who-are-the-blind-who-lead-the-blind/Deggy-Dinder-elliott.html
11. A state in the Midwestern region of the United States
12. Connecticut is bordered on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by New York
13. https://nfb.orgllsites/default/files/images/ntb/oublications/bm/bm85/bm8507/brn850702.htm
14. The words like "disabled", "Physically handicapped" and "mentally retarded" deeply bruise and offend human dignity of persons with different abilities. The Federal Government and the Provincial/Governments are directed to discontinue the use of these words in official correspondence, directives, notifications and circulars and shift to "persons with disabilities" or "persons with different abilities" (Malik Ubaidullah vs. Government of Punjab & others PLD-2020- SC-599)
15. Malik Ubaidullah vs. Government of Punjab & others PLD-2020-SC-599
16. https://www. ncbi.nlm.nih.qov/pmc/articles/PMC3036681/
17. Connect with the sense of touch. Its upgraded form is Braille Display revisions by the competent authorities. Therefore, it is advisable to consult the official sources or legal professionals for the most up-to-date and accurate information.