The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPD), Government of Sindh, today strongly condemned the demonstration staged by a group of visually impaired persons at the Karachi Press Club, during which they demanded permanent government employment and payment of salaries for a period in which they neither performed official duties nor held any lawful entitlement to such payments. The department stated that there is no legal provision that permits appointments or the release of salaries to individuals without a valid appointment letter issued by the competent appointing authority merely on the basis of protests.
According to official records, following similar protests, the then caretaker government, on humanitarian grounds, engaged 154 visually impaired persons on a contingency/temporary basis for a period of nine months during the financial year 2023-24 in the offices of deputy commissioners across Sindh. This arrangement was purely temporary and did not confer any right or entitlement to permanent government employment. Upon completion of the contingency period, these individuals were required to apply for regular government employment through the prescribed recruitment process conducted by the District Recruitment Committees (DRCs). However, instead of following the legally prescribed recruitment procedure, some individuals resorted to protests while demanding permanent government employment.
The department stated that such demands are contrary to the applicable recruitment rules and inconsistent with the judgments of the honourable courts, which have consistently held that appointments to government service must be made strictly in accordance with the prescribed recruitment process, including selection through the District Recruitment Committees (DRCs). Accordingly, no person may be appointed to a government position without complying with the applicable recruitment rules and procedures. It is pertinent to mention that approximately 35 visually impaired persons from the same group followed the prescribed recruitment process and were subsequently appointed to permanent government positions through the District Recruitment Committees (DRCs) in the offices of deputy commissioners across Sindh.
Furthermore, all deputy commissioners in Sindh, except one, have confirmed to the Secretary (General Administration), Services, General Administration and Coordination Department (SGA and CD), Government of Sindh, that none of these contingency-based employees attended their respective offices during the period of their engagement. Therefore, any claim for payment of salaries for that period is not supported by the official record. Likewise, the demand for reappointment or regularization without undergoing the prescribed recruitment process has no legal basis and cannot be entertained. Moreover, it has been observed that some of these visually impaired persons declined opportunities offered by the government for vocational training, skills development, and employment-oriented capacity-building programmes designed to enhance their employability and economic independence.
Accordingly, merely staging protests and demanding permanent government employment without following the legally prescribed recruitment process does not entitle any individual to a government position. The Government of Sindh remains fully committed to ensuring equal opportunities and safeguarding the rights and welfare of persons with disabilities while upholding transparency, merit, fairness, and the rule of law in all public-sector recruitment processes.