Victims’ families appeal for breaking deadlock over compensation

Raise objections to ILO’s plan to distribute money through ‘corrupt’ Sessi

Families of the Baldia factory arson attack victims have stressed on finding a meaningful solution to the disagreement over the mechanism of distributing compensation among the heirs.

The 2012 hit on Ali Enterprises is considered one of Pakistan’s worst industrial disasters in which 259 workers were burnt alive. Investigations led to the revelation that the garment factory was deliberately set ablaze over refusing to pay extortion.

On Wednesday the Ali Enterprises Factory Fire Affectees Association (AEFFAA) released a press statement to appeal to the federal and provincial governments and other stakeholders, including the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to help break the deadlock over compensation.

AEFFAA Chairperson Saeeda Khatoon said they had serious reservations about the pension mechanism and, thereby, did not accept it. The association convened a general body meeting at the Pakistan Medical Association auditorium to discuss how the compensation should be distributed among the heirs and raised an objection to the proposed plan.

German company KiK-Textilien, the principal buyer of Ali Enterprise’s products, had paid $5.15 million (approximately Rs540 million) to the ILO last year to distribute among the heirs.

The AEFFAA objected to the distribution mechanism because, according to the association, the ILO wished to distribute the compensation in instalments as low as Rs2,800 a month.

Saeeda said around 70 per cent of the victims were unmarried and their parents had been dependent on them. She said under the ILO’s pension proposal, the parents could get only Rs2,800 a month as compensation, adding that the plan was a cruel joke.

She said the ILO wished to distribute the compensation through the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (Sessi). “Sessi is not a credible institution, as the heirs have already been subjected to the institution’s mismanagement and corruption.”

She added: “Leaving us at the mercy of Sessi is the worst decision because the ridicule we would have to suffer through these mechanisms would multiply our miseries.” The meeting demanded that the Sindh government put off forming the monitoring committee over compensation disbursement until a meaningful solution was found.

They appealed to all the stakeholders to not be part of the committee until there was a mutual agreement on the mechanism. AEFFAA President Jabir Khan, General Secretary Abdul Aziz and others also spoke to the meeting.