Employing children below age of 14 criminal offence, Sindh Assembly told

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Tuesday that employing children below the age of 14 is a criminal offence, but the provincial government has so far lodged only 33 cases for violating the law against child labour.

This was stated by Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani while responding to the queries of the lawmakers during the question hour of the session. Ghani told the legislators that the provincial government would soon launch a proper public awareness campaign against the menace of child labour in society. He said the provincial government had sent letters to the deputy commissioners posted in different districts to keep an eye on the instances of labour in their respective jurisdictions.

He informed the House that the provincial government provided grants for the marriage of the daughters of the registered labourers in the province. He said the Sindh government had spent Rs138 million for paying educational scholarships and Rs573 million on marriage grants for the children of the labourers.

He told the House that the governing body of the Workers Welfare Board took decisions pertaining to the payment of marriage grants. He said scholarship of Rs90,000 was given to a student of intermediate, while Rs30,000 was given to a student of the 10th grade as financial assistance for the education of children of the labourers.

Speaking on a point of order, lawmaker of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Muhammad Hussain Khan raised the issue of tax imposed on the traders of Karachi by the federal government. He mentioned that a delegation of traders had visited the Bahadurabad office of the party to raise the issue.

He also mentioned that during the meeting with the businessmen, telephonic contact was established with Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, who had promised to look into the issue.

He said the federal government should not do any sort of discrimination against the traders of Karachi, adding that there should be a uniform imposition of taxes on businesses all over the country.

Ghani said that a uniform system of taxation should remain in practice in the country, and there should not be any discrimination between traders of Lahore and Karachi in terms of recovery of taxes. He said the federal government should duly consult the traders of Karachi before imposing any tax on them. The labour minister said that the forced recovery of taxes from traders of Karachi would cause problems.