SIALKOT-A Lahore High Court (LHC) bailiff recovered 21 detainees including eight women and five minor children of a family from the illegal detention of a brick kiln owner here on Friday. According to police officials, the police have registered a case against accused Gulfam and sent him behind bars.
Bonded labour has a sordid history in Punjab’s brick kiln industry as the attempts to reform the industry have failed to address the vicious cycle of poverty that is inherent in the industry. In previous years, bonded labourers have been given respite by freeing them through judicial forums. Such judicial pronouncements, however, have had little effect in curbing the problem.
In this context, unless socio-structural issues causing and sustaining bonded labour in the brick kiln industry are not addressed, any reform initiatives are doomed to fail. The sudden promulgation and enforcement of The Punjab Prohibition of Child Labour at Brick Kilns Ordinance 2016 presents a case in point which is another feeble attempt to liberate bonded labour.
Section 3 of the Ordinance makes it obligatory for all workers engaged at brick kilns to have a written contract with the owner that states the terms and conditions of employment, including the amount of advance (peshgi), the amount of wage and the payback schedule for the advance. Under the Ordinance, a copy of the contract must be submitted before the inspector in charge of the area. Since most workers at brick kilns are employed on an informal basis, there are, however, multiple issues arising from the legally mandated formalisation of employment.
Most of the brick kiln workers are illiterate which puts them in a more vulnerable position vis-à-vis the brick kiln owners when signing a contract. Secondly, the vast powers conferred upon the inspector under the new Ordinance require a more intricate monitoring system to ensure that inspectors remain objective and not susceptible to corrupt practices.
The worker who wants to challenge the terms of his or her employment would now be compelled to use the formal legal system. This would not only put extra financial burden on him or her but also be time-consuming and due to the bonded nature of the labour, become almost impossible.
Without free legal advice and legal infrastructure available to the workers for challenging the contract, and also without vast reforms in the brick industry, this provision will simply become devoid of any meaningful effect.
Section 4 limits the advance by taking into consideration two types of employment at the kiln: time-rated workers and piece-rated workers, the latter being those earning per brick.
For piece-rated workers, the peshgi cannot exceed the amount of wages for a 6 month period. The time-rated workers cannot receive more than six times of the wage for one wage period. Most of the workers at the kilns are actually employed on a contractual piece-rate basis which often puts them in danger of having to fulfil unreasonable quotas. That in turn forces them to bring in their whole families to fulfill the daily targets.
The Ordinance also provides that during school hours any child (up to 14 years of age) to be found on the premises of the brick kilns is presumed to be employed there, unless it can be proven otherwise. The full responsibility to prove that a person presumed to be a child is an adult is on the owner and requires a CNIC or a registration certificate (Form-B) or a birth certificate.
ENTRY BANNED: The district administration of Sialkot has banned the entry of 22 Ulema in Sialkot district during Muharram. According to the Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Tahir Wattu, they are: Abdul Rasheed, Qari Abdul Qadeer Khamosh, Abdullah Nisar, Atta Ullah Bundialvi, Ziaul Haq, Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, Yahya Mohsin, Qari Kafayat Ullah, Abdul Karim Jhangvi , Ali Muaviya Shah, Abdul Hameed Nadeem, Riaz Hussain Haidari, Gulfam Hussain Hashmi, Munawar Hussain Sohdra, Maulana Syed Muhammad Taqi, Abdul Hakim, Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, the president of Millat-e-Jafaria Pakistan, Baqir Hussaini, Allama Asghar Yazdani, Abid Ali Raza, Azhar Abbas Haidari and Khadim Hussain Rizvi.
The DC added that the administration had banned the speeches of 14 Ulema belonging to different schools of thought during Muharram to ensure peace.
Govt releases Rs200m for parks’ upgradation
The Punjab government released a special grant of Rs200 million for the upgradation of Sialkot city’s five recreational parks.
The Sialkot Municipal Corporation said that now advanced recreational facilities would soon be provided in Sialkot city’s all the five parks namely Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park, Abdul Hakim Lady Park, Shahabud Din Park, Sialkot Fort Park and Model Town Lady Park here besides their upgradation.
Its officials said that the Urban Unit Institution has also started survey about the missing facilities in these parks which would be completed within next six months. The upgradation and renovation of these parks would begin in 2019 under the supervision of PHA.
Local leather exporters Mudassar Masud Chaudhary and Sajid Latif were elected unopposed as Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively of PLGMEA, North Zone Sialkot, during its annual elections.
The Rescuers of Rescue 1122 Sialkot and other law enforcing agencies conducted a mock emergency exercise at Head Marala Power Project. District (DEO) Syed Kamal Abid supervised the mock exercise. The rescuers showed their skills and capabilities to avert any untoward incident besides combating terrorism as well there.