Ignoring the problem

We are a nation of ostriches, burying our heads in the sand every time we face a knotty problem. But just because we ignore a problem, does not mean it will go away. On September 11, 2012, a factory fire in Karachi killed 257 people. Instead of having a national conversation about worker safety and addressing the appalling conditions in which industrial workers spend their years of toil, the media and government got distracted by more sensational issues.

However, ignoring the problem of worker safety then is coming back to haunt us. The Walt Disney Company, a large US-based media and entertainment conglomerate, has decided that not only will it stop buying textile goods from Pakistan itself, but will seek to have Pakistan placed on a list of countries with which it and other companies that buy Pakistani textiles will no longer seek to do any business. Disney is doing this largely out of concern for worker safety. Admittedly, Pakistan is not the only country it is treating this way: Bangladesh is also on the list.

But this is bad news for the textile industry in Pakistan in a very big way. Having only recently won a hard-fought victory to obtain preferential access to the European market, the industry appears set to lose its relatively stronger footing in the American market by ignoring the rights of its workers.

We believe that the textile industry is essential to the health of the Pakistani economy, but the textile lobby has a habit of using the industry’s position in the economy to extract far too many concessions from the government. But on worker safety, the government must draw the line. There cannot and should not be any compromise on the lives and safety of Pakistani workers. As for the textile industry itself, it should look upon the cost of worker safety as an investment in protecting its current market share.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2014.

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