Disabled Persons (Employment and Rehabilitation) Ordinance, 1981

This 1981 Ordinance requires larger employers in Pakistan to employ disabled persons and funds their training and rehabilitation. It defines a "disabled person" broadly (Section 2) as anyone handicapped by injury, disease, or a congenital condition from earning a living, including blind, deaf, physically handicapped, or mentally retarded persons.

The Ordinance creates a two-tier administrative structure: a National Council for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons (Section 3), chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and drawing members from the armed forces, various government divisions, and disability-welfare representatives, which sets national policy (Section 4); and Provincial Councils (Section 5) that carry out that policy locally, run projects, and direct employment exchanges (Section 6).

The central employment mandate is in Section 10: any "establishment" (a government, commercial, or industrial body employing at least one hundred workers) must ensure at least one percent of its workforce is disabled persons registered as fit to work with the local Employment Exchange. Section 11 requires an establishment that fails to meet this quota to pay into a fund each month the amount it would have paid a disabled employee's salary. Section 12 sets out how a disabled person gets registered and medically assessed as fit for work or training, and Section 13 requires Provincial Councils to run training centres.

The Ordinance also created the Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Fund (Section 17), fed by establishments' shortfall payments, government grants, and donations, used for training centres, financial assistance, stipends, welfare measures, and artificial limbs or medical treatment. Section 15 lets a Provincial Council debar a disabled person from further employment or training if they refuse or abandon it without good reason (with a right to a hearing), and Section 16 allows appeal to the National Council. Section 20 sets a specific penalty: an establishment that fails to pay into the Fund can be fined up to one thousand rupees, plus up to ten rupees per day for continued non-payment, tried only by a Magistrate of the first class or higher (Section 21).