No data with provinces, Centre about exact number of labourers, PA told

No province and the federal government possess any such data that can tell the exact number of labourers in any province and the sectors, with which they have been associated.

Sindh Information and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani disclosed this in the Sindh Assembly on Monday while he was answering questions of concerned lawmakers during the question hour of the first sitting of the new Sindh Assembly session.

He said that any assertion of the opposition legislators regarding the total number of labourers in Sindh was untrue as the provinces did not have any such accurate data. He informed the legislature that so far 644,616 labourers had been registered with the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (Sessi) who were also being also issued the Benazir Mazdoor Card (BMC) by the Sindh government.

He said that an online system had been introduced to let the employers register their labourers with Sessi. He explained that in the second phase, the government intended to issue

the BMCs to the labourers associated with informal sectors and those who were self-employed.

He said that very soon relevant labour laws would be tabled before the House to let the labourers of the informal sectors in the province be registered with Sessi.

The labour minister informed the House that the Sindh government could not on its own bother the factory owners in the province to check whether or not their employees were being paid the minimum monthly wage of Rs25,000. He said the concerned labourers were required to lodge a complaint in this regard to get the mandatory minimum monthly wage.

Advertisements would soon appear in newspapers and television channels to publicise the telephone numbers through which the labourers could lodge their complaint regarding the non-payment of the minimum wage, Ghani said.

He added that in case any employers could not pay the required contribution for each of its worker for the registration, they could get the facility to pay the contribution in accordance with their annual income.

The labour minister maintained that the Sindh government had been in touch with different associations of employers to get maximum number of labourers registered with Sessi. He claimed that around four million labourers and their family members had been provided with health treatment services during the last three years under the aegis of Sessi that ran a network of five hospitals, 42 dispensaries, and seven circle offices for the purpose. He stated that Sessi had also spent Rs125 million to provide scholarships to children of labourers for higher education during the last three years.

Recent murders

Earlier, at the outset of the session, opposition legislators voiced serious concern over recent high-profile instances of brutal killings in the province.

Grand Democratic Alliance MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi came down hard on the Sindh government over murders of Fahima Siyal in Kamber-Shahdadkot and Nazim Jokhio in Karachi.

She said the recent killings were highly tragic and the most sorrowful aspect was that legislators were involved in those brutal acts. She added that a provincial government that could do nothing to prevent such instances should have better stepped down.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) MPA Muhammad Hussain Khan called for handing down stern punishment to the culprits behind the killings.

Another MQM-P legislator Khawaja Izharul Hassan said that killing of Fahmida had proved the notion that those tasked with the responsibility of legislation in the province had no respect for the law.