Daily Times

KARACHI: Human rights and labour rights activists on Wednesday demanded that the government recover and release all the missing persons this Eid-ul-Fitr so they can celebrate this auspicious occasion with their families.

Addressing a joint press conference at Karachi Press Club the rights activists said that since August 2017 over 154 persons were missing only in Sindh. Allegedly, these missing persons were picked up from various areas of the province.

Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER) Joint Director, Zulfiqar Shah said, “The Constitution’s Article 10-A provides every citizen the right to fair trial and due process. As human rights activists we demand the state institutions, federal and Sindh government to release all people in their custody.”

“We demand that the authorities produce all people with criminal charges in the courts and provide them the opportunity for fair trial,” he added.

Shah said PILER had organized a two-day National Conference on Human Rights and Labour Rights in which leading human rights and labour rights speakers expressed had expressed serious concern over the deteriorating conditions of Human Rights and Labour Rights in Pakistan.

Shah informed the press that the activists had called upon the Federal and the Provincial Governments to take practical measures to ensure provision and protection of fundamental rights, as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan and committed by the State under various international conventions, including Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Conventions of International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Shah said that the speakers at the conference were also of the view that enforced disappearance and custodial torture were two brutal faces of the denial of the Right to Fair Trial and they represented the failure of the justice system. In Pakistan, there is no law on torture, nor is Enforced Disappearance recognised as a crime.

According to Shah, the participants of the conference had also noted that there existed no law on torture and Enforced Disappearance was not recognized as a crime in our constitution. He said that the participants had also expressed serious concern over the worsening condition of fundamental freedoms in Pakistan.

Shah explained that, in recent times, the government’s aggressive approach towards Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), laced with prejudice and distrust had resulted in abrupt closure of NGO operations.

He said that other problems confronted by the NGOs included the harassment of their staff, proliferation of propaganda targeting them and the use of non state actors to intimidate them.

Shah pointed out that these practices were against the Right to Association enshrined in the constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other international obligations that Pakistan was signatory to.

Shah said that Freedom of Expression was a fundamental human right enshrined in the Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan but unfortunately, this right was in regress in Pakistan.

Shah opined that this was reflected in increased censorship, harassment of media persons and outlets, and aggressive laws directed at the media, including internet and cyberspace.

Participants of the conference noted that the European Union (EU) had offered Pakistan trade incentive scheme General Scheme of Preferences (GSP) – Plus, which was a window of opportunity for stronger mechanisms and systems realising rights.

The participants were of the opinion that the 27 Conventions in the scheme holistically covered major sections of rights, including human rights, labour rights, rights of women, environment and ecology, and governance.

According to Shah, Pakistan had recently been reviewed second time for the status, by the EU. He said that the EU review report released early this year (January 2018) noted gaps in effective implementation of conventions related to GSP +.

Discussing the EU review report, Shah said that the report had noted with concern the continuation of the policy of capital punishment in the backdrop of a weak justice system, enforced disappearances and custodial torture, in addition to blasphemy laws and compromised access to justice for the accused.

Senior leader of Trade Union, Habibuddin Junaidi told the media that there was a need to undertake serious efforts to remove obstacles in the way of unionisation in the country.

According to Junaidi, these obstacles included exclusionary laws, poorly performing institutions, including National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) and labour judiciary, a non serious attitude of the state towards the issue and the employers’ reluctance to support unionisation.

He said that tripartite systems, dialogue and revisit of legislation, on top of institutional reforms should be undertaken to increase unionization in the country.

Junaidi said that the major concerns of conference’s participants was non-implementation of labour rights.

Senior labour leader from State Bank of Pakistan Democratic Workers Union Liaqat Sahi said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had recently declared the contract labour as illegal and unconstitutional and directed employers to provide regular employment to all their employees.

Liaqat Sahi said that some of the worst problems confronted by the country included child labour, modern slavery, deficits in Operational Health and Safety, absence of labour laws in the agriculture sector and poor access to social security for workers.

He demanded that Social Security Coverage be expanded by focusing on implementing appointment letter provision under Standing Orders and enhancing outreach to the so-called informal workforce.

He further asserted that minimum wages needed to be consistent with the concept of the living wages. He said that, in accordance with the cost of living and inflation in 2018, the minimum wage should be raised to Rs 30,000.

Speakers also demanded that the provincial governments fix the minimum wage in accordance with the living wages of any given year.

Mahnaz Rahman, Resident Director of Aurat Foundation and Shaikh Manzoor also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, June 14^th 2018.