Daily Times

On 16 March 2017 the honourable Chief Justice, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, declared the appointment by the Chief Minister of Director General Child Protection welfare bureau Fatima Sheikh illegal and void ab initio and further directed the chief minister to make a new appointment within fifteen days. The judgement has been recently reported in Pakistan Labour service cases Law journal(PLC C.S 2017 Lahore on page 981). The Honourable chief justice observed and showed displeasure that an illegal appointment has been made for the past four years as there is no concept of acting charge basis appointment. On behalf of the petitioner I argued that Ms Fatima Sheikh could not have been appointed as Director General as she belonged to the information department whereas the requisite qualification, according to child protection welfare bureau service rules 2011, is that a person must belong to District Management group, Secretariat group or provincial management services. I argued that the appointment should be declared illegal and without any merit as the lady belonged to grade 18 scale whereas the appointee must be of BPS scale 19.

It was shocking that child protection welfare bureau established under the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act in 2004 was in disarray due to the paucity of labour inspectors which was adversely affecting the functioning of child protection welfare bureaus. Even after the lapse of thirteen years, labour inspectors were not appointed, which has brought the performance of the entire child protection welfare bureau to a deteriorating situation. It was not until the orders and timely intervention of the Honourable Chief Justice Lahore, Mr Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, that the deputy commissioners have been appointed as labour inspectors in every district across the province of Punjab by the Punjab’s Chief Secretary. The Honourable Chief Justice further directed the Secretary Labour to present a report regarding the functioning of labour inspectors and their role in eradicating the child labour menace keeping in consideration the essence of Article 25A of the Constitution, which ensures that every child upto sixteen years of age should get compulsory education.

The attention of this honourable court was drawn towards a recent survey conducted by Pakistan Education Statistics – a department of Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training – that at present, there are 22 million children out of the school, notwithstanding the fact Pakistan has ratified certain conventions for instance 1957 ILO Forced Labour Convention and 1990 UN Rights of the Child Convention. Both the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 and the relevant labour laws prohibit the employment of children before the age of 14 years. Article 3 of the Constitution envisages the idea that the state shall ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation thus reflecting the socialist character of the Constitution. Article 11(3) of the Constitution supports the notion that no child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. Article 25A further states that the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years. Last but not the least, Article 37(e) of the Constitution states that the government shall ensure humane conditions of work and also ensure that children are not employed in work places where conditions are hazardous. The recent law passed by the Punjab Assembly, Punjab Restriction on Employment of Children Ordinance 2016, is a good step by the government but the real problem lies in its implementation. After the 18th amendment the subjects of labour and social welfare have been vested upon the provinces and now the responsibilities of provinces have increased to take remedial measures against the menace of child labour wherever it exists, either in commercial establishments or in domestic workplaces.

Both the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 and the relevant labour laws prohibit the employment of children under the age of 14 years

It is a worrying fact that two years have elapsed and the government of Punjab has not framed any policy with respect to domestic household workers – where children below fourteen years are being subjected to inhumane treatment – and openly flouting the orders of the same Honourable Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah who – in another public interest petition in 2015 – directed the Punjab government to frame the policy on domestic workers doing domestic household work.

Hats off to the Honourable Chief Justice for intervening at this juncture and it is due to his efforts that the child protection welfare bureau has become operational by the overseeing of labour inspectors across the province of Punjab and extricating the child protection welfare bureau from illegal appointments.

The writer is a human rights lawyer and appeared as a leading counsel in this public interest litigation regarding child labour. He is a partner at Zaka and Zaka Law associates

Published in Daily Times, September 16^th 2017.