Workers’ safety: Leftists protest lax enforcement of regulations at factories

Vow to remain on roads until arrests of factory owners, revisions labour laws.

LAHORE: Over a hundred progressive political workers, students and trade union members on Saturday marched from the Charing Cross, The Mall, to the Lahore Press Club to protest against lax enforcement of health and safety regulations in factories.

Speakers at the rally demanded immediate arrests of the owners of the two factories in Lahore and Karachi where fires had killed more than 300 workers. Farooq Tariq, Labour Party Pakistan federal committee member, criticised the departments of labour and manpower of the two provincial governments for what he said was their collusion with factory owners in following anti-workers policies. He expressed solidarity with the families of workers who lost their lives in the two fires, saying that progressive political parties would keep taking to the streets until the factory owners were put behind bars. He also demanded worker-friendly revisions to the Factories Act and other labour-related laws.

Tariq condemned religious parties for their silence on the deaths of workers. He said the clerics had been protesting against a movie released in the United States but were not concerned about the deaths of labourers.

Earlier, the protesters blocked The Mall for half an hour and then marched towards the Press Club where they staged a sit-in.

Representatives of the Workers Party, the Awami Party, the National Students Federation, the National Trade Union Federation and the Women Workers Helpline attended the protest.