SIALKOT

The overloading in public transport has been going on unabated and causes several fatal road accidents.
There is a shortage of the public transport vehicles due to which the situation often results in to overloading. According to traffic police officials, there is a shortage of the public transport vehicles plying between Sialkot city to far-off rural areas, due to which the local people belonging to the rural parts are forced to travel like animals.
The overloading of the labourers and workers is mostly witnessed in the morning and evening times on the buses and other vehicles of the local factories, meant for the transportation of the industrial workers and labourers between their residential areas and work places.
Former SVP of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Mian Muhammad Anwar, former president of Sialkot District Bar Association (DBA) Shahid Mir Advocate, Chairman of Human Rights Protection Forum Muneer Butt, Chairman of Thinkers’ Forum Jamil Khanna and others expressed grave concern over the situation.
They urged Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to look into the matter. DSP Traffic Waseem Akhtar said that sincere efforts were being made to control the traffic rules violations, as the traffic police were distributing awareness pamphlets and delivering special lectures in the government and private educational institutions to educate the students and teachers about the traffic rules. He said that implementation on traffic rules could save the lives of the people.
36 brick kilns sealed in two months
Police have sealed 36 brick kilns over violation of the Child Labour Act in Sialkot district during January and February, 2016.
District Police Officer (DPO) Ejaz Ahmed said that the police registered 36 cases against bricks kilns’ owners for taking forced and bonded labour from the children at their kilns. He added that the police have also arrested accused owners and managers of the kilns.
He said that the police had also recovered 117 children who had been indulged in bonded labour at brick kilns in Sialkot district. He said that there are total 255 bricks kilns in Sialkot district while special police teams were continuously checking the bricks kilns in their respective areas in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial and Pasrur tehsils to ensure.
He made it clear that the presence of the children between the ages of 4 to 14 years at the bricks kilns during the school timings would be considered as child labour under the recently promulgated Child Labour Act.
He stated that the special teams have started checking of all the bricks kilns in Sialkot district, as all those bricks kilns found unregistered would be sealed. He asked the bricks kilns owners in a meeting to ensure the implementation of the act at their bricks kilns. He directed them to ensure proper schooling of all the children of brick kilns’ labourer.
The meeting was told that the special monitoring and vigilance teams of the Sialkot district administration will continue raiding all the bricks kilns in Sialkot district to check the practice ensuring the provision and protection of the basic rights of the labourers.
He also stressed for raising awareness about education, medical and health facilities among the bricks kilns’ labourers and their families through the social mobilizers.