‘Child labour laws to be followed in Punjab in real sense’

Lahore: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Wednesday disposed of a contempt petition against the director general of Child Protection Welfare Bureau after the DG assured the court that laws regarding child labour would be followed in letter and spirit.

A contempt petition was filed to seek implementation of an earlier order about framing policy for domestic workers doing household work. The chief justice on June 30 had sought reply from the labour secretary as to what steps had been taken by Punjab government in order to protect domestic workers. The director general on Wednesday appeared before the court and submitted that the government was making its best efforts to pass legislation on child labour relating to domestic work. He also submitted that 4,205 children had been rescued by the Child Protection Welfare Bureau in the first six months of 2017.

On behalf of Labour Department​, it had been submitted that 176 children had been found in industrial establishments in 2017 and 173 FIRs lodged and 10 industrial establishments sealed, and in the year 2017, about 2120 inspections had been made. A law officer of Punjab government submitted that labour inspectors had been appointed across Punjab.

A social welfare worker, Andleeb Abbas, had filed the petition. Petitioner counsel Sheraz Zaka contended that in 2015 the LHC had ordered the labour secretary to consider framing policy on the domestic workers regarding their wages and they should also be notified just like workers working in industrial establishments.

He submitted that tender age girls and boys were employed for domestic work and subjected to maltreatment, but no policy had been chalked out by the government so far. Sheraz Zaka elaborated that in South Africa and the UK, the wages were the same for domestic workers and industrial workers as both were covered under labour laws, whereas, there was no mention of domestic workers in labour laws of Pakistan. He said child labour menace had increased manifold over the past few years in domestic work due to the non-existence of policy or regulation for the domestic workers. He said the child labour in household work was damaging the reputation of the country among the comity of nations with the recent incident of Tayyaba who was maltreated by the wife of a session judge. He said the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu of the maltreatment meted out to tender age, Tayaba.

He said the chief justice on a petition had directed the secretary labour to formulate a policy with respect to domestic workers doing household work but it had not been done so far. He requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings for not complying with the order.