Labour minister announces establishment of medical college at Landhi

College at SESSI Landhi Hospital to have 25% reserved seats for labour's children

KARACHI: Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Ghulam Murtaza Baloch has announced to establish a medical college at SESSI Landhi Hospital with 25% reserved seats for labourers' children.

Addressing a meeting at Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on Saturday, the minister said that even though water and gas were the basic needs of the industry, the federal government was not providing Sindh its due share. He said that he would request to the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to raise these issues at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and also address the reservations of industrialists and employers regarding Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI).

Prior to this, the KATI Patron-in-Chief SM Muneer said that the laws regarding establishing a company and regulation of industries were made before Pakistan come into being. He said that now these laws had become out-dated and should be modified to help in conducting business activities.



KATI President Danish Khan said that the suspension of gas was unacceptable. He suggested that the way the Sindh Governor Imran Ismail had formed a liaison committee to address the industries' issues related to federation, the CM should also form such a body to resolve problems face by the industrial community at the provincial level. He also demanded to restore KATI's representation at Workers Welfare Fund (WWF).

Head of KATI's Standing Committee on Labour and SESSI, Zahid Saeed, said that only 63,5000 workers were registered at SESSI while more than five million workers in Karachi and almost 20 million across the Sindh.

He further said that the business community, under the leadership of SM Muneer, establish Friends of Burns Centre, with state-of-the-art facility for the poor and needy. He offered that the centre could initiate satellite centres in seven hospital of SESSI in Karachi and one in Sukkur. He also urged the minister to restrict labour inspection once in a year as per the rules.



Responding to the queries and issues raised by industrialists, the minister directed to restrict inspection as per the rule and also urged the industrialist to complete their part of work on time to avoid repeated visits.

He said that his department would facilitate efforts to increase registration at SESSI. He also assured that the issues of KATI's representation at WWF and healthcare for workers would be considered under the rules.

KATI Senior Vice President (SVP) Farazur Rehman, KITE Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson Zubair Chhaya, former KATI presidents, Gulzar Firoz and Masood Naqi, and vice president Maheen Salman, Secretary Labour Abdul Rasheed Solangi and Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) Commissioner Kashif Gulzar Shaikh also attended the meeting. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2019.