‘Only 4 labour officers for 63 brick kilns in ICT’
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has learnt that there are only four labour officers for 63 brick kilns and factories in the federal capital. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah presided over a case pertaining to bonded labour in Islamabad on Thursday.
The court summoned directed the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICTA) Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hamza Shafqaat to resolve the matter and submit a report on it.
A member of the commission probing into bonded labour in the capital, advocate Umar Aijaz Gillani, told the court there are only four staffers in the labour department for the two million population of Islamabad.
He asked how action would be taken if a labourer files a complaint. Gillani said that the department cannot conduct an action on a priority basis due to the shortage of staff.
Read Pandemic pains: the plight of Pakistan’s labourers
He maintained that the recommendations of the commission cannot be implemented with the dearth of staff.
At this, the state counsel Danyal Aziz informed the court that there was no case of bonded labour in Islamabad.
Osama Satti case update
The IHC granted bail to a police constable arrested in the Osama Satti murder case. IHC Judge Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri ordered the release of Mudassir Mukhtar on bail against surety bonds worth Rs200,000.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2021.