KARACHI: Various civil society organisations, trade unions and labour based organisations jointly urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar to take back an anti-labour union statement he made during a hearing. Reportedly, the CJP criticised labour unions during a hearing by saying that if he had the power to ban unions and they were not a part of the constitution, he would have banned them right away because they ‘destroyed the institutions’. In a joint letter to the CJP, the labour organisations termed the statement as ‘damaging to the movement of workers and trade unions’. “Because of your observations against the trade unions, millions of the workers could be deprived of their rights of association, which is a fundamental right under the Article 17 of the Constitution,” stated the letter. “You are the guardian of the constitution and if you pass such a statement, how will institutions which have been exploiting workers for the last 70 years dispense justice,” the letter read. In their joint letter to the CJP, the organisations also urged the CJP to constitute an independent commission to investigate who was destroying the institutions. The letter further stated that the CJP’s remarks against unions had led credence to the fear that the situation may become even worse for workers. “The heads of the institutions have already violated the laws and if such statements come from the head of apex court then which institute of the country will provide justice to poor workers?” the letter continued. In their letter, the labour representatives demanded that the proposed commission be asked to focus on the large scale violations of the constitution. The civil society and labour leaders also appreciated an earlier decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) in which the court had issued a verdict, on an application submitted by the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and PSO, against third party contract, daily wages and contract workers. Through this verdict, the SC had ruled recruitment on contract against the law and constitution. The joint letter stated that it was this ruling that had made trade unions, journalists and civil society confident that the rights of workers were being safeguarded by the constitution. The civil society and labour leaders asserted that workers were being exploited on a mass scale due to non-implementation of the Article 17 of the constitution. They further added that the violation of International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) convention 87 and 98 caused a bad name for the country on an international level. “Under the GSP-Plus agreement the Pakistan state is responsible to act upon the core Conventions of ILO and if the state is not abiding these Conventions then the GSP plus status may be terminated,” explained the letter, adding that it was a cause of dire concern that the state was violating the GSP Plus agreement. “The state is violating the GSP Plus agreement by usurping the workers’ rights. The silence of state’s institutions and honourable court over this violation is an indicator of an alarming situation,” read the issued letter. Signatories of this joint statement included Liaqut Ali Sahi of Democratic Workers Union of State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Executive Director Karamat Ali, Afzal Butt of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Abdul Aziz Abbasi of Watan Dost Mazdoor Federation, Shafiq Ghauri of Sindh Labour Federation, Nasir Mansoor of National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) among others. Published in Daily Times, August 11th 2018.