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interests were not protected by any national legislation.
Pakistan lacked a law that exclusively dealt with workers’ occupational
safety and health. Selected clauses of various laws, including Hazardous
Occupation Rules, 1963, and Factories Act, 1934, continued to be used to
cover a few aspects in that respect. The Factories Act dealt with issues ranging
from working hours to cleanliness and contained special provisions prohibiting
child labour. A major criticism of the law remained that it was outdated. For
example, if a factory owner was found to have been negligent in the protection
of his workers, he was liable to pay as fine a mere 500 rupees.
In the face of criticism, the government often mentions the numerous
subsidies it has given to provide affordable food items to the poor. The food
subsidies are given out through Utility Stores, Ramazan packages and Sasti
Roti schemes, etc. According to the Benazir Income Support Programme
(BISP) chairperson, who was also a federal minister, the government had
planned to open 2,000 new utility stores where the BISP cards could be used
to acquire food items at subsidised rates. These efforts however have over the
years failed to benefit the neediest because of the simple fact that the subsidies
have not been targeted. Proponents of universal subsidisation claim that it
helps 3.5 million families but little is known of these beneficiaries’ economic
status. The working classes and many economic experts hold that universal
subsidies on food and other items at Utility Stores largely benefit the rich.
They call untargeted subsides essentially a waste of scarce resources and a fig
leaf rather than a meaningful attempt to care for the poorest sections of society.
As affirmative action, a job quota is reserved in different government
departments and institutions for religious minorities. The HRCP Expert Group
on Communities Vulnerable because of their Beliefs, a body comprising members
from religious minority communities and also some members of the majority
faith, noted that even though there was a five-percent job quota for minorities
the same was exhausted almost entirely by hiring sanitary workers.
Labour
Protests
Numerous protests, by employees of both public and private institutions
demanding or asserting their rights, were recorded throughout the year.
According to media reports, workers associated with state-owned electricity
generation companies and All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) protested
most frequently. The most common reasons for these protests were electricity
and gas load shedding, inflation, unemployment, kidnapping and murder of
employees, low wages, privatisation and lack of regularisation.
A major reason behind protests by industrialists and workers in Karachi
was extortionists operating with complete impunity in the city. In March,
around 350 marble factories in Karachi closed down to protest against
extortionists. The chairman of All Pakistan Marble Mining and Processing and
Export Industries Association said it had become routine for unidentified men