Call for high-level inquiry into deaths of six labourers in Clifton

A consultation between the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) and the civil society has demanded a high-level enquiry into the tragic deaths of six construction workers at a construction site in Clifton last week.

They have demanded bringing to book the owners responsible, the contractors and the government officials. The consultation announced the launching of a fresh campaign to revamp the occupational health and safety situation in the province and the country at large.

They also expressed concern at the “negligent” attitude of the provincial government which, despite the passage of two years of the Sindh health and safety law, 2017, had failed to frame the regular rules of business to notify a council to implement the law.

The senior superintendent of police, South, Tariq Dharejo, said, “We feel that such incidents are becoming far too commonplace. Government bodies overseeing such affairs must also be held accountable; otherwise, the payment of compensation will become an endless process and the occurrence of accidents will continue.”

He informed the meeting that an FIR at the Clifton Boat Basin Police station under Section 322/34 (causing death through negligence) had been lodged. He said that four owners of the plot were on pre-arrest bail. He said that compensation was a legal right, but “we want to put an end to such tragedies”.

Ali Ashraf Naqvi from the Sindh Labour Department said that 22 steps had been formulated for health and safety after the Baldia tragedy, which made Sindh the first province-ever to enforce laws for the safety of the workers. However, ambiguities remained and there had to be detailed rules, which had not taken place thus far.

“We concluded that safety measures for those working at very high altitudes had not been implemented.” Another noted civil society member and expert in labour matters, Naeem Sadiq, said that what we needed to have was a body with executive authority to take arbitrary notice of such tragedies, fix responsibility and punish those responsible.

Nasir Mansoor, deputy-secretary-general of the National Trade Unions Federation (NTUF), said, “The construction sector is a mafia, a slavery. There can be no change for the better if workers are not given appointment letters and are given registration with the Labour Department.”

Karamat Ali, director, Piler, who also presided over the consultation, said that in 1911, 200 people were killed in an incident similar to the one at Baldia in New York. While, he said, the capitalists concerned just considered the lives of the workers as a piece of dirt, 500,000 people staged a protest march, which compelled the owners to pay hefty compensation to the workers’ next-of-kin. He was emphasising the power of public persuasion. He said that public awareness was called for.

Habibuddin Junaidi of the people’s Labour Bureau said that public reaction was not forthcoming. He said we must organise seminars, protest processions and other forms of protests over the callousness of the capitalists and the government’s apathy.