This state of affairs is not limited to Gadani. Factories, mines and businesses all over the country have little regard for the safety of their employees. There is the recent case of five factory workers who died in Karachi after being instructed to clean an underground chemical tank without being provided with any safety equipment. Human life, apparently, is so cheap in Pakistan, that it is cheaper for factory owners to risk the lives of workers than buy them gas masks. It is shocking that in a country, which witnessed one of the most horrific factory fires of recent times, there is barely any debate about labour rights. One of the outcomes of the Baldia factory fire should have been a shake-up in the way labour laws are implemented. But even the brutal death of nearly 250 people did not result in the required push to ensure worker safety. One wonders how many deaths will it take before labour departments become serious about protecting vulnerable workers who form the backbone of our economy.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2016.
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