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year in mines operated not only by private individuals and companies but also
by the state authorities. In January, four miners lost their lives after a blast in
a coalmine in Orakzai Agency, FATA. In the same month, 13 miners lost their
lives after being buried under rubble when a phosphate mine collapsed in a
remote village near Abbottabad, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The
area was inaccessible by road which delayed a rescue operation by eight hours.
Use of explosives, unscientific mining techniques, lack of safety equipment
and process and improper waste disposal have been the main causes of accidents
and deaths in mining operations. The hazards of mining have increased in
conflict-hit parts of the country.
Workers in volatile and insurgency-hit Balochistan and FATA regions were
rarely paid risk allowance and few measures were taken to ensure their safety
against militant attacks. At least some incidents of unidentified men shooting
and killing labourers reported from Balochistan appeared to have ethnic
overtones. Due to a lack of options, the workers were forced into hazardous
and risky jobs. The conditions were such that labourers were willing to illegally
cross borders, regardless of the peril, in search for a better future abroad.
In February, seven labourers were shot and killed in an attack on a
construction company’s camp in Kech district of Balochistan. An insurgent
group claimed responsibility for the attack but the killers were never found. In
another incident in Balochistan, seven coal miners were abducted and killed in
Quetta in July. Around 40,000 coal miners in the province went on strike to
push for the arrest of the killers.
Labour
Unions under attack
Forming and leading unions remained a dangerous job in a country where
prominent labour leaders have been targeted and killed with impunity to send
out the message that any hindrance to exploitation of labour shall be removed.
In July, the president of All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) at the Lahore
Accountant General’s office, Bakhsh Elahi, was shot and killed by unidentified
men riding a motorbike. The APCA workers at the Accountant General’s office,
led by Elahi, had been on strike for the preceding 12 days. The killers responsible
for the deaths of WAPDA union leader in Jhang and president of PIA workers
union in the preceding year were neither identified nor brought to justice till
the end of 2012.
The six power loom union leaders in Faisalabad convicted to 594 combined
years in jail served the third year of their highly controversial sentence. The
conviction of these union leaders, charged with attempting to murder four
owners of a power-loom factory, was largely considered unjust as numerous
details of the case suggested of a clear motive to threaten workers demanding
minimum wage. The Lahore High Court agreed to hear an appeal against the
sentence but no hearing date had been set till the end of 2012. In August of the
year under review, Labour Qaumi Movement, a movement of power loom